Tish Davis
Dublin, Ohio, U.S.A.

Shall I Compare?

it fits in the wrinkles
of her white bed covers
her skeletal frame
too weak to restart the audio
of Shakespeare's sonnets

An Ombudsman Volunteer at a local nursing home, I time the call light outside the blind woman's room, count the number of staffers that pass her by.

buds of May—
keys on a white baby grand,
children
from a local church
about to sing