ALL SOULS
I stay home quiet wrapped in cotton wool
holding my own hand consider the emptiness
within each atom throw my voice into the void
in a waking dream I saw your face
There was a last time we came together
without knowing
When I got there you were already cold
on the couch the cat curled beside you
nested in a ratty sweater stone deaf
he slept through the hubbub purring
We watched him dwindle away after you
& buried him in your old sweater
Get used to disappearing
as the veil thins
the dead come close
You said
My arms are always around you
but where
equinox
and it’s fall again
the dead as near
as the other side
of a fallen leaf
*
You’ve been gone eight months.
Should I fly to Rome?
How to climb the mountain of each night
the slightest question
an avalanche
*
The yard’s a wild mess like my hair
I forgot to pick the raspberries
Sweeping dead fuchsia from the porch
each day a new drift
Sound of wind
*
How can I live without my skin?
I have no off-switch
I am emptiness
but I leave a paper trail
NOBODY BARBIE
Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse.
—Epictetus
You were living a posthumous existence,
like Keats, each thing for the last time.
Where are you, except in my dreams?
You have vanished like a cloud.
Poems will be the way we talk from now on.
The moon delivers yours punctually.
Is it hard for you to stay with me, like
swimming against a rip tide?
Fearless, you slept, even in hell.
All the trees are you. I slept well
and did not dream of you.
Impermanence our theme for the year.
Most of the gold is on the ground.
Turning into the darkness, a winter coat
or blanket, we were all collectively holding
our breath. This grief is my super power.
Barbara Ungar’s sixth book, After Naming the Animals, addressing the sixth extinction, appeared in 2024 from The Word Works, which also published Immortal Medusa and Charlotte Brontë, You Ruined My Life. Prior books include Save Our Ship, which won the Snyder Prize from Ashland Poetry Press, and The Origin of the Milky Way, which won the Gival Poetry Prize. Professor emerita from The College of St Rose, she lives in Saratoga Springs, New York. www.barbaraungar.net