Now that the April Poem a Day Challenge is finished, Robert at Poetic Asides has instituted weekly prompts on Wednesdays. Today is the first: a poem that is either about the weather or incorporates the weather into the poem.
The Most Beautiful
For Amanda
The most beautiful autumn,
calm and golden, full of light,
and warm, just warm enough,
the days unfolding
in a long stretch of perfection
and on one of these days,
one just like this one,
I sat with her in her bedroom
so that her cat could hear her voice
and be comforted
and I spoke of men and marriages
and my sons, and she listened,
listening to me and listening
for the cat, lying on her side
on the floor, on a drip
one leg bandaged and
the thin plastic cord going in,
not much soothed
by our touches, our voices,
our nearby smells, because she growled
and tried to lift her head
and now that it's later,
two days later, this friend
who offered herself to listen
phones me in tears
seeking for clarity, what to do
for the old cat who is struggling
to walk and can't, claws
curling under her, whether
to give up and get the injection
and I teach her to test with her breath
as I test with mine, already
knowing the answer which I do get,
and I tell her and she weeps
and thanks me and I leave her
to put down her phone
and gather her cat
and say goodbye to this tenderly loved
child of long life, on this
most beautiful day of autumn.
This is beautiful. (aptly!)
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