Volume 16:1, Winter 2015
The Sonnet Issue
Minus the Body
for my father, 1926-2010
Say goodbye to sourdough in the oven
and the grass just cut, a scent you’d roll
down your window for, the earth breathing
again after a cold spring. Close the door
to Mozart, his sonatas for violin, to books
and beaches and beds, dreams which lit
then scattered like dandelion seeds.
It is time for the crossing. Shed whatever’s left:
regret, old letters, the absurd attachment to things.
Pack only what won’t tip the boat:
love, forgiveness, the oars of celebration.
You are light now. Air in a canoe.
Wherever the river takes you is there and here.
Ignore our mourning. We are behind in letting go.
Christina Daub co-founded The Plum Review, the Plum Writer's Retreats and ran the Plum Reading Series for several years in DC. Recent poems appear in the anthologies Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, and The Paradelle. She is a recipient of a Young American Poet's award and her work has been translated into Russian, Italian and German. She has taught Creative Writing and Poetry in the English Department at George Washington University and has taught in the Maryland and Virginia Poets-in-the-Schools programs as well as to adults for many years at The Writer's Center. To read more by this author: Winter 2000 issue Whitman issue