Tobi Alfier

The Man Digs Post Holes

while she relaxes in the shade of an oak,

sips sweet tea, watches his strong back.

She listens to the red-breasted finch flutter

as it brings cotton and dandelion to feather

its nest—new year, new nest, new baby birds

to watch until one morning they’ll be gone.

Just as one morning the man will be gone.

It’s the recipe of her life: one part breeze

cool enough to shiver in July, one part night,

tricked into solitude by the fragrance

of Cherrywood piled high upon the fire,

one part waiting out the silence,

an unwelcome guest at the party of two,

and finally one part gone.

She’ll sleep while he packs, scribbles a note

of half apology, half explanation, a bottle

of hundred-proof from the cupboard

between his knees for courage—

no forwarding address.

She’ll meet this with an unflinching gaze,

won’t even look around for a memento

to add to her catalog of injuries.

She’ll light the fire, feed the dog woken

early by the neighbors next door—

the usual Saturday morning shout-fest

complete with slammed door, revved

El Camino speeding off the lawn and down

the gravel road in anger.

She’ll fire up the kettle, bake the biscuits

till they’re high as daisies in spring, sit

on the porch with her coffee, a Marlboro Red,

and the recognition that here we go again.

Time to find another hard-luck

handsome bloke with a good long while

till his expiration date, gather up

some wishes to feather her nest,

and start all over once more.

Bio: Tobi Alfier is a multiple Pushcart nominee and multiple Best of the Net nominee. Both “Slices of Alice & Other Character Studies” and a reprint of “Sanity Among the Wildflowers” were published by Cholla Needles Press. She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.bluehorsepress.com).