Persimmon Tree in Winter
Grand dame in orange diamonds.
Library with a hundred copies
of the same delicious book.
Last guest to leave the wedding
pocketing the leftover favors.
She poses by the pine tree,
Ignores the evergreen.
I hold my fruit late like that,
certain another summer
will reveal my good. It won’t.
I too shine best in ice.
*
How to Haunt Someone You Love
Fill a kitchen cabinet with coffee mugs.
Plain, fancy, handmade, ceramic,
Santa-faced, jacked-up jack o’lantern,
covered in flowers or cats, quotes from books,
Gifted from work, or swiped.
Fill two shelves of the cabinet.
Stack them on top of each other
so they tilt like trees in a storm
or tombstones in a very old cemetery.
Then die without telling anyone
which was your favorite,
which fit your hand just right.
Make us examine each
of your morning vessels for answers.
*
Originally from the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, Hilary King is a poet now living in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, TAB, Salamander, Belletrist, Fourth River, and other publications. Her book Stitched on Me was published by Riot in Your Throat Press in 2024. She loves hiking, travel, and ribbon.
