Startling hoary branches,
yesterday quite bare,
now glisten in this radiance,
the sky blue-eyed and clear.
How soon the world can change
from dismal to good cheer!
A sudden shaft of sunshine
can dissipate despair.
Mary Hills Kuck is a sometimes-poet who takes her work relatively seriously, having found time to write after years of teaching English and German in the US Midwest, Jamaica West Indies, and US New England. For five years, she has been tutoring an Afghan mother of five who migrated to Massachusetts. After almost a lifetime elsewhere, her Midwestern prairie roots keep her grounded.