ustxtxb_obs_1998_08_28_50_00023-00000_000.pdf

BOOKS & THE CULTURE Adapting I am getting used to The abundance of Texas Trees crowded with birds, Persimmon skies spilling Into my living room At six in the morning, The warbling torrent of notes A mockingbird lays on me When I look out my kitchen window, Remembering that other place And how that one first robin Was the biggest news in town. NANCY FITZ-GERALD VIENS Little Things How honey melts on the spoon raised slowly from the teacup. And Cream somersaults into coffee. How the bent man and woman join hands in a memorized grip. How the child trusts her doll into the safety of your lap. And the crush of the voice that yells at the child. How the dog runs away from people. And how sad the words but what I really want to do are. And the smell after rain. How it is the sprinkle not the thunder that both drowns . and slowly saves our lives. JENNY BROWNE Nancy Fitz-Gerald Viens came to Texas in 1982 from Vermont, partly to escape “the bone-crunching cold of Vermont winters.” She says she has never regretted the move. A resi dent of Denton, she works as a secretary in the reference department in Willis Library at the University of North Texas. Her work has been published in Yankee Magazine and North Texas Review. Jenny Browne is a transplanted Midwesterner who now lives and works in San Antonio. She teaches poetry in the schools, paints houses, and practices a little bartending on the side when necessary. She also writes for the new incarnation of the San Antonio Current. Naomi Shihab Nye AUGUST 28, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23