Click here to see Peggy’s three previous FootHills books.

Due in the Fall

For Michael

It is late summer

and I prepare my manuscript

for his review

I use a knife

very sharp

to carve my pencil

many times

If I do not, the words

catch behind its blunted end

and cling there

like infant monkeys

afraid

I collect my papers

The blank and the filled

alike, and form them

with great care into a package

He was specific about that

But I am slow

with tape and twine

My pages lift to the trees

like tropical birds

find perches

fold wings about themselves

and mock me

The monkey words scold

scamper

and break free

100 page hand-stitched poetry collection. Price includes shipping.