in memoriam

Carol Saylor Flocken, 31 May 1943 - 16 November 1978

 

I and my mother's mother

walked measuring the tide

two generations from each other

handfast and side by side,

late at night in mid-November

the night my mother died.

 

Mae, my companion's mother,

long winters gone was buried.

They argued, I remember,

when last they were together.

Then a relentless winter;

it snowed through February.

 

From Mae to this November night

leaves my companion stranded

motherless and daughterless. But

should I take her hand

I bind our generations on the

snow-apparelled sand.

 

Alive, alive together

along the future's black

unmemoried, deserted beach

we shoulder up the track

with jubilation at our beck,

disaster at our back.

--------------------------------------


(Four Days Left to Vote for Yohannes, Hero of the Year)