Carol Peters’ chapbook, Muddy Prints, Water Shine, was published by Finishing Line Press as #57 in the New Women’s Voices Series. Apobiz Press recently published Carol's first full-length book, Sixty Some, which you can sample at the Apobiz Press website. Her poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Asheville Poetry Review, Ecotone, International Poetry Review, Mandorla, Pedestal Magazine, Reconfigurations, South Carolina Review, The Lyric, Waccamaw, and elsewhere. Her book reviews have been published or are forthcoming at American Poetry Journal, The Gettysburg Review, South Carolina Review, and Yemassee. She is Editorial Assistant at The Gettysburg Review and mentors students privately and at Charleston School of the Arts. Visit her website at http://carolpeters.org and her blog at http://carolpeters.blogspot.com. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina and Hakalau, Hawaii.

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The Man Who Plays Piano at Nordstrom

parks his sedan on the shoulder and stands with his back
to the woods. He’s burly, middle-aged, still wearing
his tuxedo — frayed suspenders dangle, the bow tie’s loose.
His forearm’s draped with plastic garbage bags.
Still, he’s complaining — lips pinched, cheeks in a sag —
to a comely woman in crepe silk, pearled cardigan
and pleated slacks. She bends, sympathetic to his tirade,
willing to enter the woods or drive farther, find a motel —
whatever he wants but nothing, nothing suits him.