H.L. SPELMAN
  Still Life -static: from the Latin sto, stare, to stand.

  Once there were four green apples arranged 
  In a simple pyramid on a white china plate.

  Once a painter rendered them on a cheap canvas
  That was left hanging in the kitchen of the house

  She bought soon after a truck plowed through 
  The windshield of the car her husband was driving.


  In the remodeled kitchen that still let in a draft, 
  After toast and tea, she would stand before the frame.

  From the shadow limning the apples’ bottom edges 
  She could almost hear a low hum, the static of objects

  Pulled through time, the slight hiss of their resistance,  
  The one sound when everything is standing still.