Summer Afternoon
With a bucket of sealant and a spent mop on a slow day,
my father sent Prince McMichael and me to muck the buckled seams
along the carpet rolls of pebbled roofing winter freeze and thaw left leaking.
To a Friend Who Does Not Believe in God
Neither do I, but yesterday, in the hospital,
for two hours, I held the hand of a dying woman—
my friend’s grandmother, 94, barely intelligible,
and in unrelenting pain.
Exile is No Country
The trees burned first, ablaze in the inferno of exile.
The tsunami of death drowned the ones washed up by exile.
Death Untouched, Death Crooning
My mother says
Her dog visited her in her dream,
The night it died. Death is a tragedy till you can’t go back.
The ‘B’ List
Prompt: “A Two Sylvias Press prompt, entitled, ‘Make a list, baby!’”
My Wife, Sewing at a Window
Image: “Seamstress” by Lily Prigioniero. “My Wife, Sewing at a Window” was written by Eithne Longstaff for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2023, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.