Widow
It was just like him
to die on her birthday
with no warning,
sudden as mudspatter
on a new skirt,
following a pattern
of impulse purchases
and job changes,
projects started and abandoned
like mayflies,
nothing the same
from day to day,
and all this
after he promised
they would be together forever,
she thinks,
staring at the headstone
with both names carved deeply
side by side, awaiting only
one more date.
© Spencer Smith
Spencer Smith is a University of Utah graduate and works in the corporate world to pay the bills. A Pushcart Prize nominee, his poems have appeared in over fifty literary journals, including Rattle, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Main Street Rag, cream city review, RHINO, and Roanoke Review.
The Loch Raven Review 