writing again

It's been nearly nine months since they came to Taos.

After several false starts, including several days' reversion to the bizarre form of aphasia she had at the Academy, Zillah has started writing poetry again.

The poem form is called an ovillejo.

Too late to smell the rising smoke,
You woke.
I'd risen early, looked around
And found
The collar that you'd placed upon
Me gone,
Like fog that fades away at dawn.
I set a match to standing hay,
I set my foot upon the way;
You woke, and found me gone.

Zillah sits curled on the couch with her knees drawn up and her chin resting on one of them, watching her poem as it flutters through the woman's hands.