Alice-Anne Harwood Sherrill

Alice-Anne Harwood Sherrill: A poet, singer/songwriter and playwright, Alice-Anne is half of the fabulous new acoustic duo The Woulds, which features harmonies that "fit like your favorite pajamas, intelligent song writing and a heavy dose of mischief." Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals and collections including: Boston Literary Magazine, Bent Pin Quarterly, Caduceus, The Underwood Review, Pen Works, and various collections by Shijin. Alice-Anne is a member of the Marathon poetry group active throughout the state of Connecticut, she is co-host of the Word of Mouth Series at New Haven’s historic Institute Library, and former co-host of the Wednesday Night Poetry Series which ran from 1994 to fall of 2012. 


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House Guest*

If it weren't for the chicken, Fannie Weaver

and Grandma would still be friends.

Grandpa watched it wander

from coop to yard,

yard to footpath,

footpath to outhouse,

pecking at grasshoppers and wooly bears.

He respected its sense of adventure

its independence, until it disappeared

into the small opening that led

to the dugout beneath the latrine.

Grandpa stormed up the footpath,

stomped outside the opening, rattled

the outhouse walls and shouted as if

his son had just sassed Mother.

He heard a cluck and a shuffle,

the outhouse door flew open,

expelled Fannie Weaver, skivvies twisting

around calves, skirt hoisted to thighs

and terror in her curly red hair. 

* previously published in Caduceus

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  From "We Shijin Book I" 2004, from Hanover Press