Honey Bees and Butter Up

  —a not so golden shovel after Diane Seuss [How do you stand being so virtuous] 
from frank: sonnets  

If not for slim boxes of Russell Stover assorted milk chocolates I don’t know how  
I’d get by. So much life to kick through, like Legos & Cheerios; housekeeping  
not being among my particular virtues. I don’t have an excuse for why the most  
mundane task seems so difficult right now, flimsy or otherwise. My daughter’s 
favorite color is a shade of sunny yellow—her cup her toothbrush her backpack  
all yellow—and we’ve just sent a box of her belongings out to her & her boyfriend  
in California along with the curtains that hung in the TV room all the years of her  
childhood. Those were sunny yellow, too. I’ve been there before. Drove down  
the coast on US 1 and stood at the side of the road as a gray whale leapt from the sparkling Pacific. Are you confused when I tell you I didn’t realize I’d get so attached to my  
children?  Or when I show you how many picture books & wooden puzzles I’ve been  
donating. How I’m selling hot wheels & castles & pirate ships. Boxing up fairy wings  
& sequined skirts. Downsizing they call it. I’m trying out shades of Sherwin-Williams. 
Spackling & sanding. Bagging stuffed rabbits. Repainting their rooms.   

SUSAN BARRY-SCHULZ

Susan Barry-Schulz grew up just outside of Buffalo, New York. Her work has appeared in SWWIM, Shooter Literary Magazine, Bending Genres, B O D Y, the Leon Literary Review, the West Trestle Review, Stone Canoe, Heron Tree, and many other print and online journals and anthologies.