Ingrid Hughes was born in London in 1945. She grew up in Greece, Saigon, and Singapore, as well as the United States. Since she was twenty she has lived in New York, where she brought up two children and now teaches English to immigrants and native New Yorkers at the City University of New York. Her poems and stories have appeared in magazines like Lilith, West Branch, and the Massachusetts Review.

Ingrid Hughes

Around noon

Glorious clear air and Mount Dessert crisp across the water
from Newbury Neck. Around noon the wind whips in
great cold gusts. We close windows,
batten down and wait -- but it passes without rain,
leaving the air even clearer. Night skies crystalline,
the constellations and the Milky Way luminous,
and this morning I see the ledges on Great Pond Moutain
plainly from our pond.