TERRI WITEK

Right Over Left

How, when warblers ducked
for a day’s stippled seeds

did she forget,
tie her kimono right over left,

and so arrive in the world of the dead?
And why, as she faded there with gown and sash

into snow under an old moon,
did the last thought drop from her head

like a white, falling petal?
We supposed she’d forget again,

come back, we’d find her swinging
loose sleeves of laurel oak

and clouds in the shape of weltering ships.
How then would she know us?

A warbler peddles one silken bolt.
How close the naked sound in our throats?  

   Contributor’s notes
   Kimono Pulled Up as Bedclothes (Willow)
   Stiff-Edged Kimono (Ruffled Iris)
   Reading to Children

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