A Theory of Grief

By KATE GASKIN

After she died
the crocuses bloomed

and the purple phlox.
The daffodils bloomed

and the snowdrops.
The star magnolias bloomed

and the forsythia.
The crab apples bloomed

and the redbuds.
The jewelweed bloomed

and the wild stonecrop.
The rue anemone bloomed

and the oxeye daisy.
The bindweed bloomed

and the blue-eyed grass.
The grape hyacinth bloomed

and the chickweed.
The purple deadnettle bloomed

and the tickseed and the bloodroot
and the spring air

was thawed ice
and crushed petals and powdered sex

and I walked through it slantly,
stutteringly, as if driven forth by

a nightmare, seeing everything
through the new prism

of the sudden and horrible
dream logic of my life.

 

 

[Purchase Issue 29 here.]

Kate Gaskin is the author of Forever War, winner of the Pamet River Prize. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, and Ploughshares, among other journals. She has received support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Vermont Studio Center.

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A Theory of Grief

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