By Carli Zimmerman
one more try is all i need
is all i need
to take away
these tears you cry
one more try
to stop the love we had
from slipping away
with each passing day
one more try
i am willing to give
to keep our love alive
and to never let it die
one more try
to make our hopes
and dreams come true
letting go of you
is one thing i can not do
[See the posting for April 2 for another poem by Carli.]
* * * * * * * * * *
“Never Forgotten”
By Darlene Machtan
My father’s favorite Washington war memorial:
Cherry blossoms.
Not granite or bronze renderings,
marble obelisks,
larger-than-life presidents
or reflecting pools.
Not a wall of 50,000 names that scars the earth
or the platoon of nineteen still on Korean patrol.
Not the valiant six at Iwo Jima,
not even the orderly
endless white tombstone soldiers
row on row
marching for eternity.
My father’s flag is woven
from cherry blossoms,
the last ones,
the ones that linger,
late blooming
fragile sentinels of spring,
foreign pink gnarled fists that
sadly
will too soon disappear.
The ground is littered
with their remnants,
but he looks up.
Cherry blossoms.
He breathes.
Take a picture of this.
This is what I came to see.
They were supposed
to be gone by now, he says,
but some things last.
He grins into the camera,
shoulders hunched against the wind,
wheelchair proud—
a silent one man salute
to cherry blossoms.
“A retired Rhinelander English teacher, I am now working as a Nicolet adjunct and writing tutor. I have published 3 chapbooks of poetry along with a memoir called Conversations With My Mother. I'm currently working on a second memoir titled Daddy's Long Goodbye which includes this poem.”
