The New Life

By Ruth Holzer

Here is the bed where I can’t sleep

and there’s the desk where I can’t write,

abandoned papers in a heap.

Here is the bed where I can’t sleep.

The home I was so sure I’d keep

has wholly vanished from my sight.

Here is the bed where I can’t sleep

and there’s the desk where I can’t write.

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Ruth Holzer is the author of ten chapbooks, most recently, “On the Way to Man in Moon Passage” (dancing girl press) and “Float” (Kelsay Books). Her poems have appeared in Blue Unicorn, California Quarterly, Freshwater, POEM, Slant, and elsewhere. A multiple Pushcart, Touchstone, and Best of the Net nominee, among her awards are the Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Prize, the Tanka Splendor Award, and the Ito En Art of Haiku Contest Grand Prize.