Horizon Mother (for Mari's Mother)

digging dahlia bulbs for parents of deceased
who sit and drink their coffee watching friends
hack dirt with steel and feeling as if they might
recede right into the shingles, "just came by to see you
weren't needing anything" the spring is dug from
shallow holes today and put away at least til May then
lowered into other holes in other yards a harvest
reaped from weeping sleepers keeping all the rooms intact
hack that dirt for us so we can cry our tears of grief
into your gardens which will flower and then die just like
our daughter keep that down don't bring that up please
drop this pie off later on she'll cry that filling out her
eyes before the topping drops inside she didn't cry the day
she died but simply looked outside and heard the seeping
hiss of all the nonexistent rain as it dove into the sun she
had always heard that people died on stormy days not eager
morns lock horns with all that pain and train your mind to
dance on stones one false step and you will sink into the
stream and think how easy it would be to keep on sinking
down and down without a drown will there be shovels at the
bottom river flowers to be dug shallow holes in deeper
waters spring has sprung a monstrous leak and flushed a
meadow into memory but she bubbles out and bobs on top
there she is she's out so far halfway to the other shore
indecisive as to which way she will swim could you place a
blame on her for moving out of sight?