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poems In this
issue
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TOOKANY REVIEW HOME
Edited by
Kristine Grow
&
Sandee Mandel
For more information about writing
workshops offered by the Cheltenham Township Adult School, contact:
Cheltenham Township Adult
School 1414 Panther Road Wyncote, PA
19095 Phone: 215-887-1720 |
Ruth Deming
Ruth
Deming is a psychotherapist and poet. She invites readers to join her
Writers Group the third Saturday of the month, 1 p.m., at Weinrich's
Coffeeshop in Willow Grove, PA.
We
Remember Our Husbands When They Die
When you were my husband,
Millard,
I tried to love
you
but
failed there
wasn't much to
love
other than your Chinese eyes the color
of
far-off rivers I never got to
see
or your soft long-fingered
hands
you balled into fists to pound the
table
when your billfold went
missing
I
thought the art class might cure
you
from your misery and
hate
We hung up the charcoal nudes over my
typewriter
but you refused to believe they were any
good
maybe they looked too much like me
when you died last
week
I went upstairs and took out the suit
jacket you
left here last
summer
examined it for traces of the man you grew
into
without
me
the pockets were
empty
the label read Bobzien's
of
Oklahoma
City
my fingers
searched
hungrily for any trace of
you so
I could love
you:
the mark of a
pen
a business card in your
pocket
I must content myself with
a
few white hairs fallen on your
back
I love you not enough
to bury
my cheek in your
sleeve as
I remember our wedding
day
forty years
earlier
your jacket, then, smaller, lighter in
weight,
encompassing a bright pink shirt
-
flamingo bright
-
hiding your smooth hairless chest.
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"Never be afraid
to sit awhile and think."
Lorraine
Hansberry
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