ECLIPSE

Ochre and gray:
             the peculiar hue
of a full eclipse,
             when the shadows
of leaves make double
             images that tremble,
as if the sun is splitting
             in two, the way stem cells
do, or like those dark
             moments when we
are sure we can’t go on
             only to discover we
are broken things that
             cannot help but invite
the light in

Kathleen Kimball-Baker is a Minneapolis writer and editor. A three-time finalist in Minnesota’s Loft Literary Center Mentor Series (for fiction and creative nonfiction entries), she received an honorary mention for her 2012 essay on dogsledding. Her poems have been appeared in Red Wolf Journal and the Southwest Journal. She escapes to the north woods of Minnesota whenever possible with a team of Alaskan huskies and a dog sled.