THE PUNISHMENT

The judge said
she couldn’t drive anymore,
so she jumped rope,
and made miracles in her poems,
and pranced along the sidewalks,
and paraded with the minutes
as they passed. She praised
the judge for his gift to her.
She was able now
to know the way each moment
released its powers, the way
the wind unfurled its flags,
the way a fallen snowflake
sat silently on the grass.
She called the judge
a kind friend.