Cicadas Said Kaddish
I tried to give The Universe a nudge,
packed a few boxes.
Just things we could do without:
tchotchkes, reference books.
I needed to prepare for something.
Now boxes with no destination
line the hall, reminds me of
late summer in Chillicothe,
packing up Suzanne’s life:
her cherrywood pipe, the glass eye
of a man she’d wanted,
a pistol, and love of books.
I herded together
stray tarot cards; a psychic’s closure.
Cicadas said Kaddish with mermaid sisters,
beautiful creatures from LA,
beached in a second-floor apartment
alongside cardboard shells.
All of us out of our element.
I padded the painted urn,
crumpled newspaper, back page sex ads
(to make her laugh).
An outer layer of t-shirts;
¼ of her ashes formed the
nucleus of my bag.
Still, I return seashells to The Pacific,
smooth stones from her pocket.
What comes next?
Her altar will be the last thing I pack.
Cedar Park, Seattle
How can you be nostalgic for a dirt hill
and cruel boys,
but they were the only boys I knew.
Twilight, hunting rats in an empty lot.
Before Mr. Coffey lost his house
to a Starbucks exec.
Red Cedars, hemlocks,
kept watch, with nodding heads.
Dark green, the color of
patience.
Only the boys were allowed to sled
down Sunrise Hill.
I didn’t want to, but
felt I should.
Sometimes people on horseback rode by;
enough to make me wonder
about time.
At the top of the hill,
The Tootsie Roll Lady gave
just one a day,
if you asked nicely.
Pops Jones let me roller skate
on his driveway. Said,
girls can go to college now.
I didn’t want to, but
wish I had.
The old apple trees still grow there,
but I can’t pick ‘em.
I had assumed their pale fruit
my birthright.
After a Wedding
The welders moved in unison,
leaving behind the pier.
Wordless and smudged
they approached me.
Searching stained pockets, on beds
of pink and black palms,
they revealed gold rings.
A journeyman knows to cherish.
Bio: M.S. Evans is a visual artist and Pushcart nominated poet living in Butte, Montana. Her work has appeared in Black Bough Poetry, Ice Floe Press, Versification, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Green Ink Poetry, among others.
Twitter: @SeaNettleInk Instagram: @seanettleart
photo by Karsten Winegeart (unsplash)
Fevers of the Mind 
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