by Cheryl Hicks

on mornings like this
when the air stays cool
and the sun burns through early
I think of you

contrast skin against sheets
against shirt against jeans

I go walking
flip pancakes
stir eggs without looking
and think of you

last week, I grew daring
and reached into the flame   
just to straighten
a bit of wick

just for a flash,
the strange beauty
of uneven burning

 

 

Cheryl Hicks has had creative nonfiction and poetry published internationally.  Most recently her work has appeared in Crate, Halfway Down the Stairs, The Best of the First Line, Literal Translations, Toward the Light, The Sigurd Journal, Ginosko, The Orphan Leaf Review, the delinquent, Word Riot, Clockwise Cat, Monkey Kettle, and Washington Literary Review.  Hicks currently teaches journalism, photography and creative writing at the secondary level and is also a visual artist.  Her mixed media canvases have been shown across Texas and in New York, and her collages have appeared in Anti- and Creative Soup.  Her work is showcased at the Image Warehouse in Athens, Texas.