Guest Poet Mary Alice Long
Kathryn
A psychic's reading told of Kathryn
bordering on the blessed
Damn it
Found and lost in one short exhale
black hair long and dark
at first shredded
now gone
like the long lost lover.
Invading body memories
Lilacs cut off
To satisfy the vendor,
the consumer, the rapist
Petals not suppose to fall in May
Summer is the season
Willows bend near a water source
almost anywhere in the world
Hardier than most they seem to flourish
never minding change,
or the harshness of the landscape.
A voice says on the radio,
The foundation is all that is left
if it can be saved building can start.
From old facades and frontages
make it new, one author's sage advice.
July, 2002
Mary Alice Long's questions:
My friend, Kitty, died of the effects of lung cancer after a very short
course of treatment. She was my friend and hiking buddy--
Does my poem indicate a sense of enormous loss?
What images are clear?
What imaginings do you have about what is presented in the poem?
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