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Cumbrian Summer
The mudroom. Wildflowers on the kitchen table.
Big eiderdowns in which I could disappear.
Mother and I played hide-and-seek
during that last summer,
before her hair fell out.
We ran through oak woodland
and pretended to fish in the tarns.
Father couldn’t come, she said.
Sometimes she’d sit by the window
looking out at nothing.
Those were the afternoons
when I professed to read,
with deep interest, my book
on English wildflowers.
With illustrations.
In London, on a drip
of lifesaving poison,
she smiled at the memory.
And the silence
was too loud.
.
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About the Author: Rose Mary Boehm is a German-born British national living and writing in Lima, Peru. Her poetry has been published widely in mostly US poetry reviews (online and print). She was twice nominated for a Pushcart. Her fifth poetry collection, DO OCEANS HAVE UNDERWATER BORDERS, has just been snapped up by Kelsay Books for publication May/June 2022. Her website: https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/
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Image Credit: Chase Dimock “Wild Daisies” (2022)
As It Ought To Be 