Aperture by Valerie Bacharach

Aperture

The sun not yet visible. Barbara’s photo on my phone,
she and I hold our first books. In March, she will be dead
four years. Future tense for a past event.

I read that the Earth’s magnetic north pole is shifting. Canada to Siberia.
As if my body drifts toward the cold land of my ancestors.
As if I’m not unsteady enough.
As if Barbara’s photo unleashes grief’s insistent music.

We liked to shop for shoes. Red ones.
When cancer returned with its rapacious mouth,
she shaved her head, left one wide swath of hair,
worn in a warrior’s topknot.
The aperture of her life narrowing.

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Valerie Bacharach is a graduate of Carlow University’s MFA program and a proud member of Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops. Her book, Last Glimpse was published by Broadstone Books in August 2024. Her poem Birthday Portrait, Son, published by the Ilanot Review, was selected for inclusion in 2023 Best Small Fictions. She has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and two Best of the Net.