A poem written to the prompt a summer memory. I started it on the fifth anniversary of Shirley’s passing.
LAKEVIEW PARK
I wear your name
on my throat
a toxic invocation
Enter if you choose
the feral woods
of my anamnesis
The forlorn bench where our reposes
splinter and chipping paint
it does not remember
The tainted trail
has lost its taste
your scent no longer tracks
Fidgeting a fictive collar
my unleashed sorrow
laps at the shoreline
Across the lake a guy with ragged balls
and a bounding hound playing fetch
I hate them all
Shuffling to the lot
laughs yips and splashes
bleed into my long Covid brain fog
Dark halos haunt the sun
carrion sniffers drag jagged vees
against the grain of a lacerated sky
Pausing at the open car door
in habitual deference to a ghost
kick sand free on the frame
Finger jab the starter
puffing through taut lips
engaging the gearshift
Ride with me home
or not
summer memory
After five years
it reeks of fraudulence
to say I love you
And now I know
when you refuse to answer
you are gone for good
What is good