Poem: "Widow's Walk"
This poem is from the January 8, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from siege. It has been sponsored by the general fund. This poem belongs to the series Monster House. It is a sequel to " Sonset" although considerably later in the timeline, and it will make more sense if you read that first. You can read more about Memorial Day and the widow's walk online.
Widow's Walk
She showed up early in May
when the perfume of blooming hyacinths
hung in the hair as sweet as honey.
The Eye of Fate hung in its customary place
between my budding breasts, but
I could see her only as a translucent shimmer
on the railed walkway atop the roof of our house,
slim vision of a girl in a flowing dress
forever gazing toward the horizon.
She had a duty,
but no specific destiny beyond it.
We all tried talking to her,
but she ignored us.
Whatever she was up to,
apparently it had nothing to do with us.
Since she wasn't doing any harm,
we left her to it.
On Memorial Day,
I went into the living room
to find the little old lady ghost
sitting in the rocker, crying.
I could hear her crying.
Normally she was silent.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"He stayed," she said
in a voice rough from disuse,
"but not for me."
I went out to the front yard
and looked up at the widow's walk.
There stood the watching woman
next to a tall young man in a bloody uniform,
the afternoon sun shining through their wispy forms.
She was holding the hand of his severed right arm
as if that were a perfectly normal thing to do,
and perhaps, for her, it was.
Who waits for lost soldiers,
the ones who will never come home?
It is the watching woman
who reminds them
of what lies beyond duty
when no one else can call them back
from their unfinished business.
I went back inside and
sat down beside the little old lady ghost.
I took her cold misty hand in mine,
and said nothing because
nothing I could say would make her feel better.
It always hurts
when family means something different
to you than it does to your relatives.
We are all of us pulled in different directions sometimes.
All we can do
is be there for each other
as best we can.