fallow by William Aarnes

The chemo had worked
and she had maybe more

than a fall or two
to walk the trail

along her neighbors’ fields
deciding if she could agree

with her late husband
that the color to prefer

was fawn, not fallow.



William Aarnes has published two collections with Ninety-Six Press—Learning to Dance (1991) and Predicaments (2001)—and a third collection, Do in Dour, from Aldrich Press (2016). His work has appeared in such magazines as Poetry, FIELD, and Red Savina Review.