Alexis Rotella

Ice Cold Morning in March

The copper casket just fits inside
the rectangle of earth hollowed out
just for her.

A crane lifts a slab of concrete, lowers
it. My mother’s lungs were always
tender. I used to tell her, wear a scarf,
cover your chest, button your coat
all the way up.

Exhaling
a plume of smoke
gravedigger

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About the Author

New to Greensboro, NC, Alexis Rotella has been writing Japanese poetry forms in English since the late 1970s. Her most recent books, Scratches on the Moon (haibun) and the anthology Unsealing Our Secrets (MeToo Stories) earned Touchstone book awards. Her latest anthology, Grandmother’s Pearls, is available on Amazon/Kindle, as are a number of her books.