©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

image by Brandon Mowinkle on Unsplash

Our country is a sonnet
written in another time.
Set down in 14 lines,
no more, no less.

©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

image by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

She’d waited two years for grief to end.
It wasn’t easy, but she was game.
“Two years should do it,” remarked a friend,
but Anne was still going round the bend
with nothing improving and much the same.

©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

image by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

Sometimes, I think of your body,
sunk deep in the earth.
I look at your grave and imagine
the wood crate below.
I try not to wonder and yet
I cannot help but wonder
how much flesh is left, and
how long it will take that to go.

©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

image by Shifaaz Shamoon on Unsplash

The world has not gone dark,
and soft stars sparkle in the sky
on summer nights.
The dawn still lights.

©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

image by Morteza Farkhondepour on Unsplash

I wear your absence like a hat, too tightly,
its brim subduing light relentlessly.
Son-light, grown brighter from celestial moorings,
and yet at times so difficult to see.

©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

image by Andrew Ruiz on Unsplash

This year, on Independence Day,
it’s hard to know just what to say,
for words are used as weapons now
by some who vow or disavow
whatever stance one might defend,
with all sides easy to offend.

©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

come and sit
beneath my blanket
as you did when
we shared space

©2020 Susan Noyes Anderson

Art image by JaclynsStudio

In life, it was mine to give you care,
a role I would never begrudge at all…
from blissful days of downy hair,
(and me ever grateful that I was there)
through years that bore fruit in a wailing wall.