From the collection The Immediate and No Sooner, 2021.
Shadorma 316
8/24/20
These three girls
went somewhere or did
something but
now they’re done
just the talk left Like car horns
all honking at once
Tanka 188
8/24/20
The picnic table
fades under the walnut tree
grayer and softer
more quiet and more stoic
with each summer that passes
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
That is exactly my picnic table you describe – do you have a crystal ball and are spying on my life?? So many of your poems….
A well-worn picnic table has a personality to it that those plastic ones or metals ones just cannot aspire to, I think.
I like the idea of the manmade picnic bench gradually fading into its naturally surroundings. The first poem made me laugh because I think that is what it must sound like to outsiders when my siblings and I are together because we all talk at once and rather loudly.
I think picnic tables have to endure a lot, and also, I would love to know just a fraction of the stories they have heard…And I do think I would enjoy seeing your family in action.