Breaking open
pistachios by the Friday fire,
pitching shells toward the pit.
I wonder whom the meat of casements
that arrive empty fed. Others
refuse to open, peeling back my thumb
nails; I surrender,
hurl them to the fire.
A moth drifts singeingly close,
riding the updraft like a bird of prey,
pretending grandeur.
All around the fire pit, pistachio
shells litter the scorched earth, fallen
short or saved by a small miracle:
the ricochet of bleached
bones off burnt wood.
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About Rosalind C Hughes
Rosalind C Hughes is a priest and author living near the shores of Lake Erie. After growing up in England and Wales, and living briefly in Singapore, she is now settled in Ohio. She serves an Episcopal church just outside Cleveland. Rosalind is the author of A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing , and Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence, both from Upper Room Books. She loves the lake, misses the ocean, and is finally coming to terms with snow.