COVID Fall: Memorial

[mrissa]

I wanted to know who she had been
They gave me adjectives--nice, so nice
The sweetest lady. I wanted to know her loves
And those fell rarely from their lips.
By chance, a mention: she loved
The river valley in autumn. Oh. Me too.
She was oak and birch, maple and sumac
Blazing? Yes. So am I. Then another:
Turtle sundaes, pecan and caramel
Sticking in our molars. Yes. Oh yes.
With that I start to build an idea,
The faintest image of who she was,
Who we would have been together.
As we approach a million,
Gather their loves: this one a sunset
Streaking wide prairie skies,
That one petrichor and sunshine,
Another varnished wood. This is how
We keep them. This is how we keep our souls.

Comments

[pameladean]

These fragments have we shored against our ruins. Gather these stones.

No outside words will do justice to the sorrow and comfort of this poem. it does its own. Hearts from me too.

P.

[mrissa]

Thank you, dear.