“I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence.” Toni Morrison quote, as heard on episode 707 of The Slowdown, with host Ada Limon.
Do the dead speak?
Do our dead speak to us?
Ever?
I am not certain. But
I am certain of some things—
unbreakable love for my children.
sparkle and surprise of new love—of
you on the phone, telling me—
I can feel you near,
your cheek resting against mine,
even when you are not here.
Are our dead near?
Despite Gaza, despite Ukraine,
despite yet another mass shooting
adding weight to the mass of us
left behind who ask
these questions about their dead
Despite that Toni Morrison quote
Despite you, dying right now
in the middle of ordinary October
You finished early
Done with hospital beds, with loss,
with memories—
Remember when? No.
No is the answer.
you and your memories are gone.
Do our dead speak? Oh, likely they are all
too happy to stop talking and stop listening to us
Despite so much,
I know.
I am certain of some things—
These words, and my human children
held loosely
will return
do return. What else returns?
Last year the eagle’s nest near the pond
fell in upon itself from its own weight.
Last week you died and the weather turned
hard rain and the wind
brought down the once beautiful
Autumn
left the world brown and dull
with sharp sticks of bare trees
scraping at the fog but
Today the gone leaves
reveal what their green hid all summer—
Eagles built a new nest, near the past
and this same morning, in November dark,
I passed a blond woman in a parka, walking
from barn to house with an empty plastic tub,
her head down, on the way inside
to the warm kitchen, having gone out in the dark
to feed another animal. We are, I am certain,
here to feed each other
Puff Of Smoke Poems 