Widows - Mount Eerie, Julie Doiron

It’s almost Mother’s Day

Me and the other widows will commiserate

Alone at Montessori again

Straddling two worlds

Between the crush of single parenting

And the need for wailing in the woods

Around a slash pile burning

Into the night with tear crusted eyes

I know I’m overcompensating

In this PTSD disorientation

From my brief time in the rich part of the city

Now my hands stink like salmon skin

Left out in the rain in the ash

Of the fire from last night

I haven’t bathed in a while

And no one’s near me

If there’s significance in where you live

Let it all go and follow love and intuition

Today the tabloids told the world you separated me

And see what’s there

My phone began dinging more than usual

In the open sky

It was just like the day they found out that we’d gotten married

Because we’re all gonna die

Unwanted attention

From an inhumane delirious absurd other world that keeps trying to eat you

I woke up quivering, raw, and heartbroken again

Took my daughter to the garbage dump

And rifled through the free pile

And stood next to the pit

The crows and ravens circling spoke to us

And we spoke back to them

But nothing is real

Except this one thing

Please remember at the bookstore in the poetry corner upstairs

I slept with my head on your lap