When You Were Gone to the Gulf

Marianne Bluger
From:   Summer Grass. London, Ontario: Brick Books, 1992.

Because our bedroom window was open
spring wind
smelling of grass and humus and flowering trees
came stirring your shirt
where it hung on the doorknob

it was late morning     sunny
the radio played in the kitchen
a rock-and-roll song I remember we danced to
in our socks one winter night
all by ourselves in the living room
just because we felt like it

on the dresser lie your shoehorn and bankbook
and on the shelf beside my wrinkle cream
the jar of Chinese linament
I rub your back with when it hurts

and in the cupboard there sit
several pairs of your big old shoes
which I sometimes go and look at
because they are so beautiful

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Marianne Bluger's works copyright © to The Estate of Marianne Bluger.