Elegy

by Tobi Alfier

I don’t remember much.

Arrivals and departures blur

like an outdoor square on market day

some place, some lovely place,

where the language is not mine.

It is finally warm after a winter

both wicked and perilous.

Hand-knit scarves the color of forests

and brambled berries now replaced

by headscarves in fruited hues.

Willows bend, applaud their reflections

in quiet rivers, still but for the splash

of dragonfly, the sound of graceful

herons landing among lilypads

and algae. They check the sun,

fly off again.

I know the calendar, welcome

new growth in the fields,

turn of the waterwheel, melody

of tractors and trains from miles

away. But I did not know how much,

how much the weight his final

departure would leave on the hearts

of all, no matter the memories,

each different and owned without

disgrace, like quicksilver mirages

widening in the unaccompanied sun.

* * * * *

"Elegy" was first published in Main Street Rag (2019/2020).

Tobi Alfier is a multiple Pushcart nominee and multiple Best of the Net nominee. Slices of Alice & Other Character Studies was published by Cholla Needles Press. Symmetry: earth and sky is forthcoming from Main Street Rag. She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.bluehorsepress.com).