Jimmy Scanlon Poems

The roses of our anniversary
I gave you weeks ago
Still stand in the dry light of the kitchen window
Their eyebrows now pursed and veined
...

At the end of our table on the wall,
Is a photo of you
And when I eat dinner, you watch
Perched on the nook of a railing
...

Close your eyes she said
And I obeyed
Like fog blinding a beach
And open your hands
...

he Eulogy

The son
His throat clutching and collapsing
...

I never did get that train set at 8
The basketball at 10
Wouldn't have fit beneath the Christmas tree anyways
Nor those Eddie Bauer Ice skates when I was twelve
...

I'd love to come and sit with you in your evenings of news
where the last pillows of sunlight decorate
Your walls like Christmas ornaments
And your friendly morning shadows still
...

We travel together
Our shy footsteps slowly becoming
Words and phrases
In beach sand mimicking
...

Her penmanship was so stiff and proper
L's with their particular
Lean and balance of hip to toe
Her A's firm
...

In this valley that I stand in
Staring into its glacial face
Anciently weaving
its way north
...

She walks with the slow communion
Of a woman carrying a basket of prayers
From chair to sink
To give them the breath of water
...