The editors are delighted to present A Hinge of Joy by Jean L. Connor, the second in a series of chapbooks: Six over Sixty, by fiction writers, poets and memoirists whose work has appeared in Passager. These limited-edition chapbooks will be available individually and as a set.

One Morning
You could have said the clouds
were lifting or you could have said
the clouds were settling in over the long
low line of mountains, the day rich

with uncertainty. The world was silent
that morning, until the goats began
to bleat their complaints. A passerby,
who cared, strolled over to their pen,

calling out with cheerfulness, "Good morning,
goats! Good morning!" Then, she bowed
to them. And the young nun,
who knew the goats, laughed, and

went on with her sweeping, while humming
a song about being strong. After that,
I can't remember whether it rained
or not, but everyone was who he was.

The marigolds were marigolds
and the goats were goats and we,
we felt no need to urge the zinnias
to be roses or anything else.