Marjorie Buettner and Margaret Dornaus

Still

The deer graze near your grave and a visible morning dew hangs heavily on October leaves. The stone my granddaughter left a few years ago is still there, balancing on the edge of your grave marker. Is the stone there to remind you that we still share the world and its memories of our loved ones, or is the stone there to hold the spirit of loved ones down? Will it stop your restless spirit roaming an empty world or will it stop our memories and feelings from entering that world?

It’s been 20 years of growing old. Now, a new decade descends upon me and I have nothing to share with you. You are still silent, entering and exiting my dreams like a stage actor without lines. My voice is silent, too, hanging over my head like a dark cloud foreboding rain. Perhaps I have entered your world after all.

not enough stones . . .
I keep watching for a doe
to shepherd her fawns
through the forest’s undergrowth
outside my woodland office

It’s been seven years since you last sat where I am sitting. The same amount of time some people say it takes human cells to regenerate, leaving a whole new head of hair, a new collection of bones, a second skin in their wake. If that’s true, I wonder if you’d recognize the person I’ve become since your parting. My hair is wilder, coarser, tinged with silver. My skin thinner, more prone to fine lines. My bones more brittle.

Still, I try my best to accommodate changes. To recognize each new pitfall and alter my environment accordingly. Today, your desk is mine—the place I come to think, to write, to listen for owls at night, cockerels and crows by day.

in my dream
I almost recognize you
gusting past
you carry the scent of wind,
forgotten flowers, and me

---

About the Authors

Marjorie Buettner has two books of poetry published by Red Dragonfly Press: Seeing it Now (Haiku and Tanka) and Some Measure of Existence (haibun) which won the Haiku Society of America book award. She lives in Chisago City, Minnesota.

Margaret Dornaus’ poetry appears in numerous journals and anthologies. Her first book, Prayer for the Dead: Collected Haibun & Tanka Prose (Singing Moon Press, 2016), tied for second place in the 2017 Haiku Society of America’s Mildred Kanterman Book Awards.