THE SHADY SISTERS

live in a house with yellow shutters
       and yellow doors. I suspect

that the wallpaper is yellow too,
        but I've never been inside.

A yellow sign on the yellow porch
        says that the Shady Sisters

make lampshades to specification.
        And they do. I know because one day

my husband went in and came out
        a cut-out, thirteen-inch lampshade.

Now every night when I switch
        on the light by my pillow

Gunther grins down through the holes
        in the cut-out shade

but he can't speak.
        Thanks to the Shady Sisters

I am able to finish my writing
        without interruption.

by Nancy Means Wright                   

Published in Mudfish, 1996.

© Copyright 2001- 2007, Nancy Means Wright. All rights reserved.

This site maintained by
T.D. Bennett Group, Inc.