Evergreen Cemetery, 1990
       

Now that I am
free from all I love
    the black scaffold
of the bare
magnolia still
    standing at
the lip of

spring when sex
    will gather
and furl
on its limbs
    like dust
on shelves     I see
the full

    bloom slum
coming and
the tramp stamp
    sunlight of
summer muscling
the alabaster
    blossoms off

in a wind
shaken off
    as a dog
flings water
from fur
    wrung water
blossoms flung

earthward
    garden-
ward white
wax petals
    drifting in
the grass as
snow is now

    like chips at a
sculptor's feet
now even
    in the green
deaf of leaf
I hear
    the bare tree's

disappearance
reappear
    for me
winter stricken
ribs throb
    through the earth's
green dress

and reflect
    in the dun
sheen
of the meltwater
    pond     now
that I am
free from

    all I love

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Copyright © 2015 M. P. Ritger All rights reserved
from Beloit Poetry Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission