Elmira Sweetheart —
On my slow
morning walks
I gather up
twigs, the deadwood
from hedges and
sheets of dry bark
from rotted trees; they look
like torn pages
from books; I snap
fallen branches
in half, to make
excellent kindling
to start raging fires, every
evening, this winter; they will
help keep my old lovers
all stacked now, neatly
in rows, next to the cook stove
in the kitchen,
to go crackle, stay hot
for hours.
E.E. Nobbs lives in Prince Edward Island, Canada. She is tickled pink to have received honourary mention in the 2012 Single Poem Category (The New Writer). Follow her at http://ellyfromearth.wordpress.com/ . Twitter ID @ellyfromearth <https://twitter.com/ellyfromearth
Note: The ‘Sweetheart’ is a modern, high-efficiency, airtight wood-burning cook stove with “lustrous nickel trim” in the style of some late 19th century stoves – manufactured by the Elmira Stove Works, Canada, back in the 1980s; now by Heartland, an American company.