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Yesterday the gas bill came.
Last night I put up storm windows —
three, if I count the bathroom
where the glass doesn’t fit
and only leans against the frame.

I’m mending a pair of pants
and since I’m just sitting and sewing
I call my neighbor who tells me,
as if I didn’t know,
that he’s hibernating.

He says the cold makes him want to hunker down
until he feels like a piece of dust.
He laughs, says I’m just babbling.

I say I like your babbling.
He snorts Get a life,
laughs again and loud.

I say I’ve got a life, thank you.
He says I haven’t had a laugh like that in weeks.

— Lori Wilson

Lori Wilson’s new book, House Where a Woman, from which this poem is taken, was published by Autumn House Press. She’ll read Thu., Dec. 18, at Your Inner Vagabond Coffeehouse, in Lawrenceville. Many writers featured in Chapter & Verse are guests of Prosody, produced by Jan Beatty and Ellen Wadey. Prosody airs every Tuesday at 7 p.m. on independent radio, WYEP 91.3 FM.