Butter Mints by Terri Kirby Erickson

Butter Mints
by
Terri Kirby Erickson

An old woman lived across

the street in a house so small

and square it might have been

a handkerchief, neatly folded,

in the pocket of its own front

porch. She was skinny as a switch,

hump-backed and liver-spotted,

the veins in her hands fat

as earthworms. She wore floral

patterned dresses with buttons

round and white as moons,

high-topped shoes triple-tied

with extra-long laces, and she

was no fool. On the kitchen

counter, she stacked her tins

of butter mints, homemade,

in baby blanket colors—pale

pinks, lemon yellows, sea-foam

greens. They drew us in like

beacons, eager to mop, dust

or sweep, in exchange for which

she doled them out, one at a time,

like solid gold doubloons.

From Telling Tales of Dusk (Press 53, 2009).

Used here with the author’s permission.

Terri Kirby Erickson is the author of three collections of poetry, including In the Palms of Angels, which won a Nautilus Silver Award for Poetry and a gold medal in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry, 2013 Poet's Market, The Christian Science Monitor, storySouth, Verse Daily, and many others. Terri is the mother of a grown daughter, and lives near Winston-Salem, North Carolina with her husband of many years. Learn more about her at http://terrikirbyerickson.wordpress.com.

wendy morton:
What a woman. What a poem!!
Posted 10/12/2012 11:41 AM

transitions:
Wonderfully descriptive; a story that draws you in and gives you a smiling finish ~ enjoyed ~ Judy
Posted 10/12/2012 11:34 AM

tannerlynne:
wOW! A HOUSE SO SMALL IT Might HAVE BEEN A HANKERCHIEF neatly folded...how neat is that.
Posted 10/12/2012 08:45 AM

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