-Heminger-Burke Requiem-

So I've come to this, Lois Heminger-Burke,

Long from the mid-western banks of the river.

But in this I am not alone.

The children are grown,— yours and mine

As I read of your death by-chance,
Years after you had died
"After a short illness" as it was written

At Fairfax Hospital

In the Commonwealth of Virginia.

There I was again, lurking within

The cold machinery, foraging into

A distant history for the stories I'd lift
Of the people I've encountered, intruding

Into their living quarters, but only

The dark obituary showed-up with your name
With nothing of the light once known to me
And I ran from that darkness

Into the distance where I could see clearly

Never so young as at that moment

Running toward the Huron.

On the anniversary of her death.  1/18/1997