Her Territory
She remembers as a child
Finding herself
in a large, empty room
with one window.
That summer she watched
a cloud of dust motes
pass back and forth
through the screen
while shadows flickered
on the rusty mesh.
One day without warning
the moon eclipsed the sun.
Standing watch inside the screen,
she saw the plowed fields
and the scarecrow
disappear over the horizon
where in the aura’s glow
a young woman
walked toward her.
I must be dreaming,
she said to herself
but she wasn’t sure.
How could she decide?
Suppose I change
the screen into a map.
If I succeed,
I’ll know I’m asleep.
She’d hardly finished speaking
when the screen window
turned into a map of her own.
