Annual Poetry Contest

Resolve

By Carol Ten Hoopen  Sorrento, FL
2002 Contest: Honorable Mention Place

"She's gone," hushed the voice.
"She died in her sleep, it's a blessing."
"She's at peace."

I return to the home of my childhood.
There are things which must be done.
My mother needs me yet.

Afterward, I seek solitude, solace;
Away from the doers of good,
The mouthers of platitudes.

I amble outside the empty house
No longer a home.
I find myself in her garden.

I kneel down. I claw the earth.
The weeds tear free.
Clumps of soil fly as I tug, as I yank.

I decide, "Thus will I go."
Not as my mother, slipping away.
Rather as a weed, fighting to remain.