Revised Edition: LukivPress (2019), Canada. Previously published as Not Just Another Day (Poetree, 2000, USA). An excerpt // On the Way to the Marriage Counsellor // -35. / The blades scraped the windshield-- / Icy cat-claws. / "Brrr!" she said, bundled, / Exhaling a white plume. / The cold car groaned along / The crunchy driveway / As he drove and shivered. / "EE?" he said. "We'd better fill up!" / "We've used that much gas?" she asked. / "I don't want the girls running out / In this weather!" he said. // At the gas station the pump dinged / At $.52. The pimply, embarrassed / Boy said, "I'm--sorry, Mister." He / Rubbed his gloves together. "We're / Out." / "Out?" he said. / "Um, we're out of gas." / "Out of gas?--What about the good stuff?" / "Um, we're out of that too." The boy grinned, / His thin moustache white with ice. // On the beeline home / The blades clawed / And he said, / "There's a first time / For everything--aye?" // "Yup!" she said, in a / White stream. Then she reminded / Him: "We're going to miss our / Appointment."
