Come see for yourself,
you say. Anna would be pleased.
My heart stumbles over its rhythm,
loses count of its beat. How easily
her name rolls from your tongue,
a landslide tumbling toward
my home’s thin walls.
It’s your garden you wish me to see.
In the aftermath of our failure,
I accept your departure.
As if you were a ship sailing
its first voyage, I blessed your start
with daffodil bulbs,
split from beds once ours,
now pushing their roots
into other soil.
Next spring, they will lift
frilled faces toward the light.
They are discreet and will not
speak of their time
with me.
Peggy Hammond’s poetry appears or is forthcoming in Rogue Agent, Two Thirds North, Cordella, Skylight 47, The Comstock Review, Waterwheel Review, Jabberwock Review, River City Poetry, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and elsewhere. Her full-length play A Little Bit of Destiny was produced by OdysseyStage Theatre in Durham, NC.
