Widow as Refuge

By Kathleen O'Brien

PROMPT — Ask Me.

In writing, a widow is considered "undesirable." The extra word hanging out on a line. But there is refuge in being a widow. The human kind. You find someone who's lost a special someone at the airport, waiting to fly to a son or daughter. Or in the grocery store, wandering in the frozen food section. A ring too large for her finger, or a ring dangling on her necklace. Your eyes linger on the ring and hers on yours and you weep together over the frozen pizza pies. Without one word spoken, you know about the shirt she sleeps with, and she, yours.

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After years of pounding the keys defining and defending sustainable design and construction in the Northwest (see her book, The Northwest Green Home Primer, 2008 by Timberpress), Kathleen O'Brien returned to an earlier time when she expressed the personal in poetry and poetic prose. She's not sure there is a difference. Kathleen writes from Bainbridge Island, Washington.