her snake boots

i see her now in her plastic
boots
white with small umbrellas painted
into
the fabric.
red, green, yellow, orange.

to say she was eccentric would
be an understatement.

she called them her snake boots.
and out she'd go

into her broad wooded yard,
the winter sky
mirrored in puddles,

wearing close to nothing,
to fetch the paper at the end
of the gravel
driveway.

a rake in hand, just in case.