by Deborah Harford
there is nothing special about this suffering
just an old woman struggling with her body
voyaging on against all the odds
legs weak from years of refusing to walk
stomach awry from insistence on comfort
she drags us all down with her
as she moans and clutches herself to herself
yet she murmurs, still dogged by beauty
how she loves to see the moon
sliding along night clouds
outside her window
Deborah Harford is a lifelong poet who writes about nature, spirituality and family. Her work has been published in Global Chorus: 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet, emerge2018, Terminal City magazine and most recently On Roots & Rootedness, the inaugural anthology from the UK-based Rural Writing Institute, for which she also served as editor. She is also the co-author of a non-fiction work, The Columbia River Treaty: A Primer.