Category: Death & Afterlife
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heirloom flowers
He wrote that summers he hayed the fields with his grandfather, walked the woods, looked for blackberries to pick, careful not to step in old root cellars, watched for hollyhocks that foreshadowed ruins of a farmhouse where a long dead farmer’s wife planted flowers by the door, while her long dead husband worked the fields…
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Needing a news break
Reading the news, I remember how my parents drew nearer death and seemed to take on a different glow telling childhood stories When missiles approach Kyiv do the souls at ground zero take on a special glow before they incinerate? 10-17-22
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Feels
to get out of your head you go out you get in your feels and leave early sadness is contagious why infect others? 8-9-25
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Murder she wrote
Gloomy overcast morning, you daydream Angela Langsbury walking her dog in the park across the street. She calls out and waves. You call back frantically you are too young to die and to stay on her side of the street. As she walks away; you call out, “…and don’t forget to scoop,” rise from your…
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Epsom salts
Sitting on the porch scalding my feet in Epsom salts. Rocking back and forth in an old chair. Lamenting the sacrifice of the tree. Wondering what other pieces were torn from its corpse. Does it mourn the loss of siblings living in other homes or that fell off the dock at the furniture store. Sitting…
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Elegy for a cockroach
A cockroach lies dead behind my chair on the porch. I do not mourn its passing. It is one of those large ones that reside in the South among dead leaves under the bark of trees, on your porch. They do not respect privacy or care for cleanliness. If they can cohabitate and live with…
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Cattail tales
dragonfly swoops gathers mosquitos in its maw other mosquitos oblivious death passed them by 7-3-25
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Fractures of light
sometimes, I look at your picture and see fractures of light streaming through 6-24-25
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Long distance call
Hi Mom, talk louder our connection is weak. I hear Dad in the background put him on speaker. Jasmine was telling us the other day that she missed coming to visit you. Has she stopped by yet? When she does, give her a hug and tell her we love her. She left before we got…
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Cut flowers
“And I won’t forget to put roses on your grave” (Rolling Stones) cut flowers in a vase already dead we keep them only until their death can no longer be denied and throw them in the trash because they will not grow it seems strange to gift my lover a bouquet, because she enjoys the…
My husband's poetry 