The space you inhabit

(form and function)

as in a child’s playroom.

This Earth

(sun’s aureate receptacle)

green when loved;

soaking up stores of light;

cradled stones absorbing

and holding heat;

tangled thickets snaring grief and regret …

worm-wooded fallen logs

ground down again and again

by life-making insects too minute

to be seen ………. gnawing,

gnawing through the long darkness.

—

Julie Stuckey grew up in Pennsylvania, graduated from the University of Delaware in business and currently lives in Pawling, New York.  She has had numerous poems published online, in print journals and in anthologies, including: Apropos Literary Journal, Ardent, Blast Furnace, Dead Mule, Prairie Wolf Press Review, Seven Hills Review, Shark Reef, Verdad and Wilderness House Literary Review.