my horoscope tells me 

morning headlines 
weighing my chances 
of survival 

to be impeccable—

oatmeal again 
the raisins 
of my labor 

will I measure up? 

beige days gone 
I treat myself 
to purple everything 

Cynthia Anderson

has ten poetry books in print, most recently The Missing Peace (Velvet Dusk Publishing, 2021). Her poems frequently appear in journals and anthologies, including Spillway, Crab Creek Review, Apercus, Askew, San Pedro River Review, Mojave River Review, The Coil, and Split Rock Review, among others. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. In 2020, she took up short-form poetry and has been exploring haiku, senryu, cherita, and related forms.

Cynthia is co-editor of the anthology A Bird Black As the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens (Green Poet Press). She makes her home in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree National Park.

Author’s website: www.cynthiaandersonpoet.com