Pearls

By  Cheryl Caesar

In our back yard, the snow is thick and smooth

as icing on an Irish Christmas cake. Sweet

enough to burn your tongue. Safe at the window,

we feel no touch of cold.

The evening has gone grey and mauve

as an old children’s book. Deer glide past,

cutouts in a paper theatre. Silently,

without fear; there are no guns here.

Our elderly neighbor Benito turns off his light.

Widowed, mending broken bones, he rests.

No bang and clamor of masked, gun-toting men.

We all receive the gift of another planetary turn.

We close like oysters. Over the small grains

of the day’s irritations, we let flow

our nacre, soothing our flesh, forming

another pearl on our life string. Look close:

each one reflects a scene of our precious,

our sweet and precarious peace.

 Cheryl Caesar is an ex- expatriate, having lived in Europe for 25 years before returning to her native Michigan. She teaches writing at Michigan State University, and serves as president of the Michigan College English Association. Her chapbook of protest poetry Flatman is available from Amazon, and her poems and artwork appear in both volumes ofWords across the Water (Fractal Edge Press). In 2024, she won first prize for prose in the My Secret Lansing contest sponsored by the Lansing Arts Council.