My poem “Someone Else’s Memory” was published today at Writing in a Woman’s Voice. My thanks to editor Beate Sigriddaughter.
Pat and I sit drinking cocoa
on a snow-clad December day.
Remember that Christmas Eve,
she says, when we were young
and went caroling with my cousins?
I gave you my blue stocking cap
you wound round and round
your neck to stay warm.
And in a rush, I remember the night,
the carols, that Bill sang loud
and out of tune, my new, not-warm-
enough red coat, and her cap
I found years later in a crushed box
on the closet floor, dirty from muddy boots
and dust, wondered who it belonged to,
how it wound up there—the cap I washed
and reached out the car window to give
to a homeless man, how he thanked me
and put it on, wrapping it round and round
his neck, grinning through broken teeth.
Sarah Russell Poetry 