Ordinary Days

It is said he was determined to outlive her
though in hospice, wheelchair-bound, he sat
holding her hand, his words a secret whisper

binding them at
the end of their lives
not hiding what

seventy-seven years together drives
a once-active man to sit so still
catching light-beams but also gives

way to grief that will
not be denied, his family free
to reveal a love still

surviving a dying we do not see
while in Niagara Falls, public deaths in fire
stop trains, shut bridges, toss bodies, debris

and flames sky-high but no one knows where
they’re from or whether they intended
so public a demise, were careless, afire

with rage or a car malfunction portended
death at a moment where fourteen miles away
three deer rose off the lawn and descended

into nearby woods to hide ‒ hostages to a day
of dark events and imaginings. Then farther still
a brutal war gives way

to a Pause ‒ a single day or four. It is said we will
see women freed at night and ‒ rimmed by light ‒ a child.

*

The wet spring

wildflowers everywhere
pink and blue and white and yellow
fungi among the violets in the lawn

it is a year for digging and planting
catching rainwater in a barrel
watching a Mama Starling

attempt to feed three
barking fledglings
all at once

the old pines are stressed
their lower branches
brown

and across the street
down the road a bit
the developer

scrapes his lot of trees
grass
topsoil

builds patio houses
on top of a well-drained swamp
and the drainage ditch below

oblivious as the pines

*

Martha Deed lives on the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda, NY. Her poems have appeared in New Verse News, BlazeVox Journal, Earth’s Daughters, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily and dozens of other online and print journals. She is the author of three poetry collections from FootHills Publishing, including her most recent, Haunted By Martha (July, 2023).