The plastic petal, a perfect drop of blood upon the ground.
One lens snapped, the other whole. The frame in tatters.
Is it light that blinds us? Or the knowledge of that light?
You were with me for so long, then disease stole you away.
The sight of you enough to make me wish for blindness.
Day after day of that. Enough, I said, and threw my sight
away. Like hope. Like all I’d ever wanted, lost.
The unforgiving ground.It was on a softer ground we poured your ashes,
grey and white upon the soil. The rain dissolved them.
For months I’d watched you, nothing more than bones and fear,
I took my glasses off to wipe my face.
Perfect sparkling tears upon my cheeks.
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Carolyn Smart is the author of an award-winning memoir and seven collections of poetry, including Hooked and Careen. She is a freelance editor, founder of the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and lives in South Frontenac, Ontario. For more than three decades she was Director of Creative Writing at Queen’s University.
Her website is www.carolynsmartediting.ca
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Photo courtesy of Christine Higdon.
The Litter I See Project 