Memorial Day
Arriving at this point
without knowledge of the journey,
the slow collapse and internal
dampening – the shutting down, the closing in – lost
in the shadowed veil, my eyes flutter open to find
everything in its place, yet
altered, as if viewed from a single step
closer at a different height, offering a disturbing
clarity. Looking up, I wonder that she wakes me
from a dream of dogs on this, of all days,
only to detect under me linoleum in place of the bed,
my glasses skewed from the impact,
the floor and left side of my head wet. You looked
like you were reaching for something, she says,
and perhaps I was, though with hand outstretched
I found nothing to hold but the darkness.
“Memorial Day” was first published in Eclectica in July 2014, and was, much to my delight, subsequently included in Eclectica Magazine’s 20th Anniversary Best Poetry Anthology.
O at the Edges 
This one conjures all sorts of what-why-how questions … but I clearly get the sense of grasping darkness. And looking up at what one would normally look down on in a kitchen. A memorable day for sure, whether or not designated Memorial Day.
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It was a memorable holiday…
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How artfully you interweave very intimate and personal experience with the common human experience and its existential challenges! And the form on this one- it flows so naturally and yet there is an intricate and precise beauty in its progression. It is one of my favorites.
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Thank you, Ursula. I’m so pleased this is one of your favorites. We all share these common moments.
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