Then / Haunted by Kenneth Pobo

Then--

Blue sky confetti 

falls over my head.  

My good mood, 

peppermint.  Then—

 

I die.  A heart attack?  

Who knows, I drop over 

and hit my head on a pink 

Passionate Kisses rose.   

I hadn’t expected to go 

like this, wanted something 

Bergmanesque, a chess 

game with Death, 

though I don’t play chess.  

Even at checkers I lose.  

My husband finds 

 

my body, seems far away 

even as he tries 

to resuscitate me.  I call 

for my guardian angel 

who’s busy sewing a cloud 

that broke above a maple.  

 

This is the end.  

It’s vague and beams 

of light flash 

and flash before fading.

 

 

 

Haunted

 

We spread

my mother’s ashes

in our garden

as she wanted.  

 

Her presence,

not her absence,

haunts the garden.

Every flower

has her

in it.  Even the yard

greens with her vitality.

Haunted makes 

some people nervous.  

They imagine portraits 

in houses with eyes

 

that move.  My haunted

garden is a joy.

I visit my mother,

petal by petal.

We talk,

have much to say

in sun or rain.

 

Kenneth Pobo (he/him) is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections.  Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), Lilac And Sawdust (Meadowlark Press), Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (BrickHouse Books), and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel Press).