Saturday, December 18, 2021

YOU WALKED OUT OF MY LIFE

by Susan Terris




You   my mother's cousin
Single    were like another mother
 
We talked   read   played games
Knitted scarves   until you met
 
Davy   age 10   Down Syndrome
Son of David   widower who proposed
 
I was 13   needed you   but you said
Yes   became Davy's mother
 
And I never again saw you
Then   today   looked   found only
 
Obituaries   David's from '88
Davy 1994   you    25+ years ago


Susan Terris is a freelance editor and the author of 7 books of poetry, 17 chapbooks, 3 artist's books, and 2 plays. Journals include The Southern Review, Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Blackbird, The New Verse News, and Ploughshares. She has had poems published both in Pushcart Prize and in Best American Poetry. Her most recent book Dream Fragments won the Swan Scythe Press Award.