• Vol. 03
  • Chapter 04
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Good

After church she’ll see to lunch
as he finishes cleaning out the barn,
where the sounds of clucks and moos
have been replaced by the solitary buzz
of a fly in the low-hanging heavy heat of a summer afternoon.
The bank said they’d be sending someone out
around 3 to inspect the property.
The front yard’s been mowed
and all the dead flowers cleared
from what used to be the garden.
Old children’s toys and dog bones
turned up out of the dry, cracked dirt
and it seemed like fifty years were erased
just like that.
Standing in the kitchen over a pot of beans,
watching her husband’s tired descent
toward the front door,
she remembers the preacher’s words
about how God makes everything
work out good for those who love him.

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