To Nora: On Her Active Dying

by Jane Yolen

This is such a Barrett Browning

correspondence, and you without your dog.

I wish I could spring you but the fjords

have you in their icy grip

in this Norway of your years.

Why God cannot keep the kind,

the brilliant, the dear ones

in their right and righteous places

is the greatest mystery.

Why should He have your company

and not us who need it more?

When my husband went, staring at the wall

as if it were a door into the universe

of names, I swore at every

standing man I met on the road

who was not him. I expect

I will do the same for all

the particular, small women

I meet in the days ahead,

saying in my brain,

but you are not Nora, nor

will you ever be again.

* * * * *

Jane Yolen is the author of 360+ books (actual number) including 8 books of adult poetry. Much of her work is for young readers, but she has a number of novels, essay collections, and pedagogical books for adult as well. www.janeyolen.com