I am hesitant to say much about this week’s poem. Its spare lines sizzle with loss and already say so much on their own. Though I like to talk about poems – why and how they work and what they can teach us – I also know that too often we try to explain a poem, to say what it is “about.” Many poems, like this one, just ask to be read out loud a few times so that they can work on us. I don’t know what it is like to deal with the death of a beloved, but I imagine it is something like this poem.
Sarah Kilch Gaffney lives in central Maine with her daughter and is a writer, brain injury advocate and homemade-caramel aficionado. She has written prose and poems about the death of her husband at age 31Â from a brain tumor.
Yes, that
By Sarah Kilch Gaffney
I was reading Chekhov
while you were dying.
Everyone keeps
reminding me
I am alone,
so to remember
to lock the door.
I dream of
losing my shoes.
Last night,
the cat chewed
the back legs
off of a wood frog,
left it on the deck,
alive and quivering.
Gibson Fay-LeBlanc is Portland’s poet laureate. This column is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2016 Sarah Kilch Gaffney. It appears here by permission of the author.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
-
The Forecaster
Northern Meetings: April 22-29
-
Business
Engineering firm opens Maine office to work on solar connections
-
American Journal
We Love to Eat: April 22
-
The Forecaster
Portland Meetings: April 21-28
-
Business
Collins, King draft bill to help seasonal employers get more federal relief
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi {SUB NAME}, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have one? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login to participate in the conversation. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.