Autumn Noelle Hall

As the Crow Flies
for MaryAnn

She has given away the Adirondack chairs, where they'd sat in conversation that first summer. Even then, before his illness, before her decision to sell, they'd agreed the one would likely leave, should anything happen to the other. And yet, the dream – invincible as those hydrangeas; hovering like that dragonfly, a gleam above the creek. How to let it go? No amount of cardboard and packing tape could ever secure what never came true. And so the blue…that patch of sky between the leaves…all it holds…all it never will.

these tokens
of his affection
from time to time
a caw from the cottonwood
a black feather on the wind