I hear him singing in the kitchen
as he stirs sugar into jasmine tea
settling at the table, staring out the window
at the pair of mourning doves skittering for seeds
He is losing words each day, words flying
like a flock of swallows to Capistrano
avocado ladder petunia finch
and I remember teaching our daughter
snow flower spoon
but his swallows won’t return
Sentences hang midair
hovering like humming birds
hurry, finish your sentence
slipping into a white world where I can’t
follow, sailing off like Odysseus, leaving
Penelope weaving a shroud
How can we talk when he can’t remember
the name of the neighbor or what we had for lunch
why don’t you try harder
words like whetted knives, brushstrokes of betrayal
a flash of fear scribbles across his face
Odysseus at sea with torn sails and shattered oars
I hear him singing in the kitchen
as he stirs sugar into jasmine tea
a wonderfully off key Twelfth of Never
I’ll love you till the bluebells forget to bloom
I’ll love you till the clover has lost its perfume
and I whisper a prayer to a god, any god, even Apollo
Please send a whirr of wings from Capistrano
and let my love last as long as his
CLAIRE SCOTT is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, Enizagam, and Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.
