"Restoration" by Elizabeth Robin

i checked the widow box today

another milestone in the books

like the restored antique car found

languishing on a Georgia farm

a tree growing through its floorboards

or the unmolested original, not

a trailer queen, but a well-mannered

good-driving survivor

could i be one of those?

i miss fingering his fine silky hair

stroking his palm with my index finger

the tilt of his head as he reached for me

like that dog who carries a marrow-rich

bone he drops in pursuit of a giant

shadow version reflected in the lake

i’m near drowning

i cling to funhouse mirror distortions

an Elizabethan purge of bush-hogging

get brazilian waxes and shave

a hollow home in empty slippers

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Elizabeth Robin, a retired high school teacher, has two collections of poetry through Finishing Line Press: Where Green Meets Blue (2018) and Silk Purses and Lemonade (2017). A poet of witness and discovery, she relates both true and fictional stories about her Lowcountry present and world-traveling past. Also published in fiction and nonfiction, her work appears most recently in The Fourth River, Foliate Oak, Blue Mountain Review, Good Juju, and Reflections.