Prayers in Boxes (an unfinished poem)

This poem is unfinished.  It's a recent piece and will likely be revised many times before I am satisfied that it's finished.  But I wanted to share it anyway.

Prayers in Boxes

My hands,
once supple and strong,
now aged and aching,
life dusty books from their shelves,
fit them carefully into boxes,
tape them closed,
label them with a black Sharpie,
the smell of which slices through
the smell of dust and mold
and love grown old.

There are cobwebs in my hair
and tears in my throat.

On one shelf,
alongside books about writing,
I find the prayer journal I made him
I-don’t-remember-how-many years ago.
I flip through its yellowed pages,
touched that he kept it all this while,
and at the same time so aware
he never wrote a word
on those carefully crafted pages.

That was the problem all along,
of course,
I realize
as I tuck the journal into a box
with other books
and seal the top with tape.

Her Father’s Funeral (an unfinished poem)

This poem is unfinished.  It's a recent piece and will likely be revised many times before I am satisfied that it's finished.  But I wanted to share it anyway.

Her Father’s Funeral

She waited until the crowd had gone
The backhoe was filling in the grave
She asked the old man if she could have a minute please
And he agreed
She dropped the witch bottle into the half-filled grave
With a small bunch of lilies tied with black string
She nodded to the old man
And he began filling in the grave again
And she walked away
Walked away free