Song of an Old Widow by Michael L. Newell

A breeze streaming light

wafts through an open door;

 

roses wave in the yard; 

a hummingbird feeder

 

does its job for an afternoon

stream of visiting birds,

 

and I rock in the living

room and remember days

 

when you sat on the porch

whittling animals from 

 

basswood following the grain

to creations (bear, salmon,

 

fox, and wolf) that breathed

as they sat on the mantle;

 

I imagine your slow moving

body entering our home

 

one final time, draped 

in late afternoon light.

 

Michael L. Newell taught abroad for twenty years in ten countries.  He is now retired and living on the south-central Oregon coast.  His most recent book of poems is Meditation of an Old Man Standing on a Bridge (Bellowing Ark Press, 2018).