by Anita M. Barnard
Hardly brittle, soft or yielding,
she was sharp as glass.
She sometimes wished she were
a little duller, sometimes wished
she could not imagine
every possibility.
She could imagine
agreeable sisters who would giggle
together over games and ribbons,
whisper in her ear about village boys,
or maybe even better,
no sisters at all.
...unpatched dresses and
money spent on books and travel
instead of someone else's
pearl trimmed gowns.
She could imagine
that life was fair.
...that fathers made better decisions
for their daughters, or
daughters decided for themselves.
She could imagine
toes without blisters,
a whole tub of hot water
just for herself.
...quiet dinners with friends,
talk of books by the fire and
a future that did not depend
on shoes and dainty feet.
Anita M. Barnard has co-edited three poetry anthologies, most recently Above Us Only Sky, as Incarnate Muse Press and edited the anthology Sense of Touch (Entangled Muse). Her poetry has recently appeared in Illya's Honey, Borderlands, and the 2008 Texas Poetry Calendar. She was a finalist in New Millennium Writings 18th Consecutive Contest and a finalist in the 2007 Muriel Craft Bailey Award Contest; the selected poem appears in the current issue of The Comstock Review.
Anita’s poem Red was nominated for the 2008 Pushcart Prize. Her poem Callisto Exposed is on exhibit at the Blanton Museum of Fine Art next to the painting Diana and Callisto. Anita is also a visual artist, working in glass, cement, paint, mosaic and collage. Two of her collages were recently shown in Bremen, Germany then traveled to New Zealand where they appeared in four gallery shows in 2007. She lives in Fort Worth and spends weekends tending her rural land in NE Texas where she hopes to someday have a retreat for writers and artists. Her still-evolving website is 13moonsgrove.com.
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