Journal
Cx72 Poetry: Roeg Cohen
January 2, 2022
She sits 10’ to my left
In broken shock
I stopped to take pictures
Of the same ponies I made a routine to visit
At the petting zoo
She’s in a fly mask saying no
Or not knowing
I can feel her when I look at this picture
She was waiting to go to the crematorium
So close, that I have to stop by the petting zoo
Sketches of Spain
Played quietly in the office of the crematorium
Not the Miles Davis version
A version with all the corners rounded off
Not the version Mum told me her and Dad carried around Europe
A version suitable to slide a box of ashes across the desk to my sister
What song played in the same office when they slid the box containing
my father’s ashes to you, Mum?
The pony is turning away
You didn’t have to come, she’s waiting right there
The man slid the box containing her boyfriend across the desk
I watched as she tried to comprehend
Her lover, reduced to a container
How many times had this man slid a box across a desk?
I reached across, took the weight in my lap
The pony, twisting away, the scratch on the negative.
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