Never Forget
– Poetry by Laurel Benjamin –
Never forget the terrible speed of birds
skirting on top of green water
how they dip, then come out
unscathed. Never forget
their approach, afternoon shadows
onward rolling of clouds,
earth’s rotation unseen
through sunglasses,
imperceptible leaves falling from
redwoods standing the length of
the river. Never forget her
breath, finally stopped.
When they say “peace,” this is what they mean—
face pale like slab of stone, lips slipping
apart, forehead warm to the touch.
To black this out—
how it happened and memory of it
two separate experiences blended into one—
would be to deny her existence. A daughter once,
a daughter now, even with her
absence. Shadows from branches
will always cast across the water,
whether she is there
or not.
About the Author – Laurel Benjamin
Laurel Benjamin is a San Francisco Bay Area native, where she invented a secret language with her brother. She has work forthcoming or published in Lily Poetry Review, Burningword, South Florida Poetry Journal, Eunoia, Ekphrastic Review, Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down: An Anthology of Women’s Poetry, among others. Affiliated with the Bay Area Women’s Poetry Salon and Ekphrastic Writers, she holds an MFA from Mills College. She is a reader for Common Ground Review and has been featured in the Lily Poetry Review Salon.
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