Memorial Day, 2015
I turn away from the sun, and drink.
Every window is dark.
No one hears my song, not even the guitar.
When the rain pauses the grackle rests on the cedar picket.
Etymology: from Latin memorialis, of or belonging to memory,
leading to home and family, their connotations.
Remembering is simple, she says. But forgetting…
The coral snake slips by, unseen.
Nothing lives in my shadow.
* * *
“Memorial Day, 2015” first appeared at Picaroon Poetry in July 2017. Many thanks to editor Kate Garrett, for taking this piece.
O at the Edges 
“The coral snake slips by, unseen.” Such a simple and perfectly evocative line! How many citizens of nature are moving unseen and unheard around us at any given moment?
I used to go out and sit in a Zen meditative pose in the forest in winter, buried up to my waist in snow. The forest would be silent upon my arrival, but after a couple of minutes of sitting silently myself, the tree would slowly come alive with activity… birds and creatures who were already present just waiting to see who i was and what I might be doing. Unbelievable how close many of them were, and yet completely unseen and unheard until I found my “place” in the ecosystem. Nut-hatches skipping upside-down the trunks of trees, squirrels scavenging, blue jays squawking about anything and everything, crows, ravens, sparrows, finches, and even the occasional grouse. I loved seeing the grouses or pheasants wandering around near me, as they are not very common near people in most areas I know.
Somewhere out there in the snow right now is a grouse wandering past me, unseen. I find that thought strangely comforting, like your poetry!
LikeLiked by 3 people
There’s much to be said for sitting quietly. The world comes to me then, especially when alone, and not “thinking.” In general, I fail to see so much, too much, I know, but am grateful for what I do see.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are never blind if you have insight…
LikeLiked by 1 person
It helps to occasionally remember to open one’s eyes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The ancient Pharisees were known as ‘the black and blues ones’ due to their habit of lowering their eyes and averting their gaze when walking down the street, in order to not even look at those most terrible of all creatures… women! They were ‘black and blue’ because they would run into the sides of buildings or trip and fall because they couldn’t see where they were going.
Ahhh, zealots of all shapes and sizes… humanity will never be rid of them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I fear that you’re right. Hey, I just came in from my first walk in real snow in more than two decades. It was pleasant!
LikeLike
Forgetting should not be possible.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true, Derrick!
LikeLiked by 1 person