Wendy Mnookin

"Wendy Mnookin writes with subtle exactness about the charmed and fragile circle of family life--in sweet and haunted particulars that are movingly ordinary, and American. Where most poets want to use glittering acts of insight to pierce the life lived together by parents and children, Mnookin practices an understanding rooted in almost spritual detachment."
--David Rivard

"These poems are taut with trouble and courage."
--Leslie Ullman

"All It Will Take"

I do not leave a shoe untied,
forget to put milk back in the refrigerator,
lose a sock to the static of an undershirt.
I do not break a blass
wedged too tightly in the dishwasher,
drop a plate on the floor.

The furnace repairman must come when he says he will,
the red squirrel must not hang upside down on the squirrel-proof bird feeder
eating food laid out for sparrows.
The weather must be clear and brisk, as promised.
If it rains I will cry.

If it rains I will cry,
if the garbage bag rips,
if onions burn in the pan,
if the tea is too hot,
too cold.