Yoby Henthorn: Anhedonia

Anhedonia: a psychological condition characterized by inability to experience pleasure in normally pleasurable acts.

I stare at the leggy, late summer geranium
Blooms bob in midair
Grass as green
As in late summer rain is grey.

I don’t wish for fall
For bright gold birches
Against
Skinny, black spruce

I wish for the browns, grays against
Thin blacks
Of spruce
Before the first snow
Makes them beautiful.

I don’t wish for soft, deep snow
Falling down,
Muffling sound

I wish for a bench
In a stubbled hay field
Sharp, whistling wind
Blowing snow grit sideways
Scouring my face
As it blows clean
The fields
From Kansas to New Mexico

Copyright 2016 Yoby Henthorn from her book When Icarus Falls. Reprinted by permission of the author.