She fills a bag with chicken and cheese,
spring water, red wine, strong brandy,
then pulls on boots and sets out fast,
hoping his ghost can keep on calling
to help her find the way. She follows
snow, she follows the sheen of his
ashes between shadow and light
singing Brother o brother where art thou
to the tune of his favorite jazzy song.
At last there he is with winter eyes
in the middle of time’s muddled world,
that glimmer of his old twisted smile
humming Maybe, baby, I loved you once
but it’s sure been quite awhile.
Katharyn Howd MachanKatharyn Howd Machan is a professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College. She has served as coordinator of the Ithaca Community Poets and director of the Feminist Women’s Writing Workshops, Inc. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies, textbooks, and collections (most recently Dark Side of the Spoon from Moonstone Press in 2022 and A Slow Bottle of Wine, winner of the Comstock Writers’ Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Competition, in 2020), and she has edited three thematic works,
including Adrienne Rich: A Tribute Anthology with Split Oak Press.
