Around the parlor, her five cats

sit calm as Buddhas.  Here she

dwells, at home only at home. 

Outside the tedious crumble

of brick walls, she becomes

other.  Outside her windows,

spring is becoming its scruffy

self again: I see the flicker

worrying the spruce bark

for its beetle and the black hole

at the center of the galaxy

in the same light—even though

I am not there to catch either—

as I see her, her cats, and her

universe with a sense

of the solitude of each sight.

Ron Houchin's work has appeared in Southwest Review, Puerto del Sol, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Northwest, Poetry East, Potomac Review, and many others.  He has had five books of poetry published, three from Salmon Publishing of Ireland and two from Wind Publications of Kentucky.  His fifth volume, Museum Crows, was released in 2009 from Salmon Publishing.  A collection of new and selected poetry is due out from Salmon Publishing in 2013.