It’s just another night
alone her voice was
clear and unassuming
free of all
self-pity is what I can’t stand
as though there was ever
any doubt that pity was a
pearl she possessed
for myself at least… for others… well
the crape of night
flattened words that fell
in whispers from her
cracked and curling lips
there are people… women… who are meant to be alone. I didn’t believe that when Granny told me all those years ago. Now, of course, I see… I know
beyond the spray of jonquils
blooming silver in the dark
their eyes glow green before
the yowling… hear them? They cry, too, though neither of us knows why anymore
in her smile I saw
those who had left
before me
left her sitting in the
garden a garden any
garden just as I was
now… It’s long past time you were gone, don’t you think?
and in that moment
of bile and tears
rising from the heart of
Almost
to the head of
Never
I wondered
how
all of us
any of us
had ever dared
Go
© s rogers 10 march 2009
