Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent titles are CONFESS (a poetry chapbook by Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a funky road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019) shortlisted at American Book Fest Best Book Awards. Tepper has been nominated eighteen times for the Pushcart Prize, and has received many honors and awards.

Flower Box

Only when it fell over
was it discovered:
Time divided time by
unequal measure.
Summer was anticipated.
Blue flower box
to be mounted
on the old shed
bright blossoms raining
down on splintered wood.
White.
Cleansing.
Delayed again.
Charm craved by definition.