Gathering

I carry memories into fields of wildflowers.
Will they ever die
or will reminders forever be torn
from our basements, attics, crowded closets?
Sweet slumber, Sea sedge, Sweet anise.

So rare to gather with siblings,
it would be nice to not always
speak of the deceased,
look at mother’s seventh-grade autograph book
dredged from its hiding place.
Lillium, Lonicera, French willow herb.

To not carry the dead with me on prairie paths.
But so much reminds me of them.
Orange root, Oxalis, Oswego tea.

Sitting on the fenced-in patio
we sip iced tea, forage through a box
of mementos, me thinking
we’d gone through this already.
Rock lily, Rosa, Rue anemone.

Will they ever die?
So many sentences lead to a memoriam.
Spring orchis, Trillium, Trumpet ash.

Walks with these flowers relieve some of the weight.
How much time is left in which to matter?
Birthroot, Angelica, Love knot.

Marc Frazier

Marc Frazier has published three full-length poetry collections and has been publishing poetry in journals for decades. Memoir excerpts have been published in Gravel, The Good Men Project, Cobalt Magazine, among others. Fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Spillwords, Autre and other publications. Marc, the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Award for poetry, has been featured on Verse Daily and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a “best of the net.” Marc is a Chicago-area, LGBTQ writer who is active on social media, particularly on his Marc Frazier Author page on Facebook and @marcfrazier45 on Twitter.