now that love is done with me
And don’t love me quite so fiercely
when you know you are not sure ~ Leonard Cohen

now that love is done with me
I can speak to it    I left 
all the flowers meant for you
in their gardens    as you wished
all the acorns meant for me
under the oak    the one we would 
bump into in the dark 
its limbs that echoed the moon
as we loved    flesh to flesh
I left all that was meant to be 
said    again and again
in case you would ever forget
to the wind    soft reminders 
to the curve of your cheek




on the evening the news came

whispers collected    timely
utterances here and there 
in homes sealed from the storm

doctors    poised    faced the lights
the disheveled room of reporters
today we accomplished closing 
the right side of her face 

the fourteen year old will undergo 
surgery every two weeks    for the next
six months—
two Mastiff-Cross dogs 
will be destroyed 

elsewhere    still unconfirmed    
Baby Eve is born
a genetic copy of her mother

the world moves forward 
in deep riot

     Donna Hill lives in British Columbia, Canada with her three sons. She has been writing poetry since 1998, drawing much of her writing style for realism from life around her, her family, and work as a child educator. She is a part time university student earning her Batchelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing. Donna is also co-creator and poetry editor of Erosha, an online literary journal of the erotic. Her poems have appeared internationally, in such issues as Teak Round Up, One Dog Press, Poems Niederngrasse, Poetry Motel, Peshekee River Poetry, and Slipstream, and have also been published by numerous literary webzines. "My Hands Write When I Need Them To," took first prize in Comrades first annual poetry contest in the UK, and was invited into their anthology entitled, "Uno," 2002. Clean Sheets Press has published her poem, "Carolina Rain" in their latest anthology, December 2001. Donna's poetry site can be found at www.donnamichelehill.com.

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