abstract, image by t mc, on Pixabay, modified
Remembering
You could set your watch by her coming. Early
mornings, walking away the road of loneliness,
holding hands with time as she weaved through
assorted markers to his plot in the seventh row,
75 yards back, often as not humming a tune
or softly singing “Amazing Grace.” Rain brought
out her umbrella but she never missed a day
unless deterred by sickness or treacherous weather.
Jim had passed on three years ago in spring.
She couldn’t have imagined how heavy
a mantle the wound of loss would bestow.
But she had made him a promise.
The single, gray marble vase on his grave
never stood empty. In January and February
it might hold a single bunch of greenery,
maybe holly branches with red berries.
Artificial flowers at times, something that
wouldn’t wilt in freezing cold or blazing heat.
March brought out jonquils, pansies, and crocus.
Warm weather the bouquets would swell,
brighten that corner of the graveyard.
Springtime you’d see red roses or purple iris.
Late summer, a variety of colors and bold marigolds
would glow in the brilliant sunlight.
The last six months she ambled slowly, hobbled
with a cane, shoulders stooped but stubborn.
Her last trip out, a dark sky looming, steps labored,
she trudged along to his gravesite, one bright orange
(his favorite color) lily in her trembling hand
and a scribbled note folded in a plastic sleeve.
She planted the single stem close against
his headstone, placed the message on top,
secured it with a large red brick.
The only words visible, a whispered
prophecy, See you soon.
Wesley D. Sims has published three chapbooks of poetry: When Night Comes 2013),
Taste of Change (2019), and A Pocketful of Little Poems (2020.) Poems of his have been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Artemis Journal, Connecticut Review, G.W. Review, Liquid Imagination, Poem,
Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Plum Tree Tavern, Novelty Magazine, Poetry Quarterly,
Time of Singing, Bewildering Stories, and others.
February 2025 issue
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