A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community
Five for Silver
Five crows restless
in the backyard pines. The blade
that scored the bread dough gleams
from both edges. Flour clouds
the mixing bowl in the stainless-steel sink.
I think I smell the past—my grandmother’s
spoons. Campfire ash. Sun puddles
flaring in the pavement. I feel
the soft choking from the ordinary
chain around my neck. My husband
is getting ready for work, his razor
tinging alarm into the porcelain. The baby
curls inside my arms—a thin film
of sweat between us. So hot and cold
the pinpricks of those shiny black pupils.
Five crows restless in the backyard pines.
The red-tailed hawk now rising.
"Five for Silver" originally appeared in Crow Funeral (EastOver Press, 2022).
Kate Hanson Foster
Kate Hanson Foster is the author of Crow Funeral (Eastover Press, 2022) and Mid Drift (Loom Press, 2011), a finalist for the Massachusetts Center for the Book Award. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Birmingham Poetry Review, Comstock Review, Harpur Palate, Poet Lore, Salamander, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. A recipient of the NEA Parent Fellowship through the Vermont Studio Center, she lives and writes in Groton, Massachusetts.
