Only An Apple Pie Monday

The earth tilted last Monday.
Words pile up in my throat
and if I speak them April
will never bloom again.

How did goodbye
find a seat next to me?

It was an apple pie day
of baseball, your footprints
in the dust, simply the flu.

You aren’t supposed
to be tucked somewhere
between a eulogy and
tear stained handkerchiefs.

My son, you told me you
wouldn’t forget to take
peonies to the graveyard,
pink, my favorite color…
run your fingers along my etched name….

I shouldn’t be the one sitting
in a field of hyphened granite
smelling wilting bouquets
- fresh turned earth.

Oh God, Why did the earth tilt?
It was only an apple pie Monday.

©Susie Clevenger 2016

My husband lost a second cousin this week. He was only 43. 

These are my compound word choices..footprints, somewhere, graveyard.









Comments

Sanaa Rizvi said…
Oh! this is so beautifully poignant..!
Maude Lynn said…
This is beautiful.
Ellecee said…
This is beautiful, Susie, how we imagine ourselves surprised by the loss of ourselves. My sympathies to you and yours.
Anonymous said…
This is a sad beauty.
Marian said…
Hyphened granite! Leaves one hanging.
Kerry O'Connor said…
The field of hyphenated granite is a most extraordinary image which will stay with me for a long time. Such an elegy transforms grief into poetry, into art.
brudberg said…
I just have to echo Marian and Kerry... Hyphenated granite... absolutely wonderful
Anonymous said…
sorry for your loss. an apple pie Monday isn't always sweet.
Margaret said…
An exquisite poem

"and if I speak them April
will never bloom again."

the granite reference and just the whole slow/shocked feel of it all. I felt this poem as I read it.
De Jackson said…
Oh, man. This is so powerful.
"How did goodbye
find a seat next to me?" -- this is stunning.
Memorable words and phrases, in a moving poem. I felt tilted with you!
Hannah said…
For me, I was captured by your opening stanza...I like the way you bring it full circle in the close as well.
Outlawyer said…
Yes-- how did goodbye find a seat next to me is such a beautiful line as is whole poem. K.
Gemma Wiseman said…
'How did goodbye
find a seat next to me?'
is so laden with emotional power. What a question bombarded with many answers of silence.
A drama that seems akin to a mesmerising mime.
Anonymous said…
Apple Pie Monday might catch on, Susie. I think it is a lot better than the "Depressing April" that we are seeiing posted around.
I am sorry to hear about the young cousin's death. People aren't supposed to die that young.
..
grapeling said…
how is it that eulogies bring out the clearest eyes? a beautiful pen, Susie ~
Other Mary said…
My condolences to your family, 43 is much too young. This is such a touching, beautiful reaction to the death. I hope you share it with the family.
hedgewitch said…
You write of that loss we can't deny so well here--there are no ways to untilt the earth and bring the days back to normality, and one feels that grinding, helpless pain here--so well done, Susie, and condolences to your family.