Jackie’s Poem 
By David Plumb
I was going to stop by the porch
To see if you are still around
But they tell me you are not
No one even knows who
You are, though the family name
Is faded paint at the Rug and Cider Mill
I still feel your thin neck
I see your long legs in jeans
But I’m sure the pony tail is gone
We stood in shadows and I’m not clear
What we were doing then
It was more heat and wish
The next day I got the flu
And never saw you again
Fall arrives breast up red and yellow
And I’m not looking for what wasn’t
Might have been in the orchard
Or the porch, or whose dream is who’s
You are gone, the house is gone
The moon, oh I see it
Your blue eyes, your small face
Your chin close to mine
Somewhere in the mix of things I see
A silence of sorts, a wish
Running off toward spring
Where the boys and girls are new
See how they dance oh
See them leap and sing
***
David Plumb’s writing has appeared in the Healing Muse, The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, Gargoyle, and Outlaw Poetry Network,. The author of ten books, Will Rogers said, “Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip. David Plumb says, “It depends upon the parrot.”