ustxtxb_obs_2008_05_02_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

POT: YI BY MARGIE MCCRELESS ROE INTRODUCTION TO A WILDFLOWER Four wildflower books and only one describes it. But finally, a formal introduction. Look. Just like it says – among the firewheels and coreopsis. Prominent. Good lineage the carrot family. Now we can have a proper relationship. Now I can be familiar with it – prairie lace. LEANING Too much rain in Austin. The old tree breaks, leans two days against the wall before they cut it, carry it away. My father in Fort Worth steadies himself, hand on wall. All winter for him also, storm after storm. WINTER LEGEND We will say to the children Once there was winter. They will blink their eyes and stare at us. They will wonder what wool was for. And the meaning of hearth. To teach them we will take them to the top of the world and let them, with great care, touch the snow. They will ask What happened to winter? We will lift up our eyes to the dusky blue and say Forgive us. We burned the sky. MARGIE McCRELESS ROE is a retired college English instructor who recently moved from San Antonio to Austin. She spends most of her summers with her husband, children, and grandchildren in Estes Park, Colorado. Her poems have appeared in several journals and anthologies. She has one published book, Flight Patterns. Naomi Shihab Nye MAY 2, 2008 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19