in times of

               (after james crews)

             in times of distress
i reach for the empty
plastic jug under the thwart
and use it to bail,
scoop up saltwater
leaking into the bilge,
return it over the rail
to the sea, scoop by scoop,
steer towards port;
i pull your hair
away from your face
with care
into a ponytail,
start scrubbing
bathroom wall tile;
tidy up, all things in place;
dust my dresser top,
straighten a book pile,
select a novel peopled
with feisty characters
and laugh myself silly;
hang a new painting;
bite my tongue
to restrain complaint,
water our peace lily;

savor the spray of citrus
when peeling the skin
from a mandarin
orange plucked
from the ceramic bowl
on our cherry dining table.

—dotty seiter

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Notes about poem and art:
• “in times of” came in response to a poem and prompt from James Crews. After putting the first rush of words in place, I went back to read aloud, revise, read aloud, tinker, read aloud, tweak, read aloud read aloud read aloud. With this mostly free-verse poem, I became absorbed in discovering existing rhyme, adding straight and slant rhyme, and giving attention to alliteration.
• Inner Work was pure experimentation in the making. My only thought going in: play with ink again. The image of brambled branches now collaged in the right third of this piece is one I’d recently bumped into when sifting through beautiful scraps sent to me by artist friend MaryAnn Shupe a few years ago. Once I had the whole composition in place, I’d planned to use my paper trimmer to tidy its borders but I discovered art on the back of the page! I glued a makeshift paper frame on top of the rough edges instead—definitely outer work that differed from the inner work here!