Maps
by Philip C. Kolin
She had lived her life
through windowpanes
until she met him;
he drew maps on his palms
so every time he touched her
she felt voices from other
places—coyote dirges
and sunflowers disclosing
the unexpected gloom
in their diaries of cloudy days.
He led her through the tallgrass
to hear the bursts of wild blue
indigo that called back
butterflies each year, and
the red milkweed and mountain
mint that twirled the air sugar sweet.
Then one night he died, and
she placed a wedding ring
on his right hand just before
they closed the casket.
She returned to her window seat
and pushed the clouds away
and started writing about the poet’s
journey he had mapped in her hands.
This Poem Appears In
AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION + COMPANIONSHIP
Vol. 30 | No. 1 | MARCH – 2024
Author
Philip C. Kolin
the Distinguished Prof. of English Emeritus at the Univ. of Southern Mississippi and Editor Emeritus of The Southern Quarterly, has published 14 collections of poems including Emmett Till in Different States (Third World Press, 2015) and Reaching Forever (Cascade: Poiema Series, 2019).