Miner’s Wife

 ...has been accepted and published in Bluestone Review. Pretty sweet.

 

She watches from the kitchen

door ajar and robe clutched tight
his kiss still warm on her lips.
She watches till his fading
form recedes into the dark
headlamp dimming in the mist.

Up ahead muted voices

drift back, football highlights mulled
from last night’s high school victory.
“Ho, wait up,” he calls to them,
they pause, then they are three.

Three light-beams along the road

three lunch buckets at their sides
and in three houses, three wives
whisper a prayer, “Keep him safe.”