Funny Thing
Jessie Graybill

about the mockingbird
impersonating a crowd
doing part of everyone's song
there he goes now
cardinal towhee sparrow phoebe
a lilt a chirr a twitter
these are the things that give my life meaning
person on the edge
    of understanding a little of
            so many languages 

October
Jessie Graybill

the hotel in Krakow, empty of guests

sculptures in the square look down on pigeons 
flecks of snow--a weird early storm--litter the pavement

a pot of geraniums still out on a stoop
stairs leaning in
railings resolute

she is the only person left in her world
looking through a curtain, pulling away

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Jessie Holton Graybill has a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from the University of Virginia.  Her awards include Ralph Samuels Younger Poet in Residence at Dartmouth, and her publications include Asheville Poetry Review and a chapbook, Main Street Still Life in a Small Town.  She lives with her family and writes in the Roanoke Valley of Virginia.