More about my Muse, Laura:  Laura lives in a shadow box you have hanging on your wall. Inside the shadow box is a perfect tiny replica of a fourteenth century farmhouse kitchen. The walls are cool blue plaster, the floor is flagstones and through the open window the afternoon sunlight streams, bringing with it the smell of the sea. On a wooden table sits a wicker basket filled with red cinnamon pears and soft speckled peaches. Laura sits at this table and circles the basket with her arms. She cradles it against her breasts and rests her round brown chin on the fruit. Her bare feet slide back and forth on the worn flagstones as she breathes in a lush and tender French smell. Laura closes her eyes and dreams of you working in the orchards that bore these fruits. You have not allowed yourself to have this peace of a long-ago life, so Laura keeps it for you; she holds it in the shadow box of memory you have hung upon your wall.
©2000, Eating Mythos Soup: poemstories for Laura

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