DYING
by Laurence W. Thomas
it comes
slowly like the drawing down of summer
a little at a time
dying the way summer ends
with cooler days vying with the heat
the blooming of flowers that mark the fall
asters and chrysanthemums
before they fade
dying as the leaves excite the eye
yellow red orange gold
before they fall to leave bare branches
dying like the summer
with the hope
that there will be an easy winter
~~ from POEMS OF THE PASSED, 1990, published with permission of the poet.
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SOUTHERN LADIES
by Nina Tillery
Decorative as seed pearls on a flour sack,
Aunt Mattie sat on a Queen Anne's chair
in the parlor corner every day for fifteen
years--she was Daddy's only sister.
Mama dusted daily, saying "Scuse me,"
in her best peach-jelly voice, rounding
Aunt Mattie's corner, her stiff sunflower-
printed apron crisp with starch and tight
square knotted bow.
When Daddy took a job in Baltimore--
never consulting Mama--she packed
Aunt Mattie's cardboard case and sent
her and her chair to Maryland.
Before the Greyhound passed the county
jail, Mama hung a parakeet in Mattie's
corner, pinched tender spice from the herb
garden and shared peppermint
tea with the man next door.
~~3rd Place, Anthology Contest,
published in Poets' Roundtable of Arkansas's 2002 Anthology.
REPRINTED IN MEMORY OF NINA
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