He died in late June my friend’s friend just as the garden beans were pushing their way above
ground stretching toward the sun my friend found his recipe for dilly beans in a cupboard
handed it to me I folded it squaring up the corners wedged it into the crease of a card with
golden squash blossoms pictured on the front gave it along with the empty quart jars lining my
pantry shelves to a young neighbor she likes to garden to cook her kids love dilly beans

Kathleen Serley, Mid-Central VP for Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, appreciates the way retirement has opened her days to poetry. Credits include: The Solitary Plover, Third Wednesday, and Eastern Iowa Review. Her first book of poetry, Statements Made in Passing, was published by Water’s Edge Press in Spring 2022.