The painting you did

                                                by Ruth Chad


of the cobalt sea
just before you moved away

how you allowed the fence to fall
down gently around the dunes
bent it like the body

of an old woman
allowed the wood to splinter
where storms had frayed

the slats and the wire
between them    mangled
in the violet hues

reflected off the purple gazebo
tall grasses     pale    pliant
waving in salt breeze

you captured my longing
to stop
there at the edge

of the ocean
and not
take another step

leaving our long
late shadows
on the amber sand


-for Emma


* * * * *

Ruth Chad is a psychologist who lives and works in the Boston area.  Her poems have appeared in the Aurorean, Bagels with the Bards, Connection, Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England, Constellations, Ibbetson Street, Montreal Poems, Muddy River Poetry Review, Lily Poetry Review, Amethyst Poetry Review and several others. Her chapbook The Sound of Angels was published by Červená Barva Press in 2017. Ruth was nominated for a Pushcart prize in 2021.