Love Poem for Future Grief
When death forces a shroud on your shoulders
will you submit with ease and rest low in down or
find a way to linger beneath the choke cherry tree
Will you be underwater while voices muffle above you
island fog like your breath on hot glass
When death forces a shroud on your shoulders
Can you hide in the back of your closet, beneath winter clothes
slip the small space between bed board and wall
find a way to linger beneath the choke cherry tree
Which muscles will you use to rise, will you feel
the absolute stillness between gusts of wind
When death forces a shroud on your shoulders
Will the world be still water, opaque glass at the bottom of a jar,
can you rise to the surface in a bubble of air
find a way to linger beneath the choke cherry tree
Who might drive the car and will you watch the clouds contract
and release, choose to stay, become the first crocus bloom
under my spring boot, please
When death forces a shroud on your shoulders
find a way to linger beneath the choke cherry tree
