ALUM, LIME, AND TIME

two pickles

in a mason jar --

Shenandoah dill,

grass-green and crisp;

wrinkled viridian jewels

inveigling

clear through

the closed door

of the refrigerator.

　

no side dishes, these;

rather, transcendent

bonnes bouches of brine --

each a petite paean

to halcyon summer.

　

one week ago,

the jar was full --

gift from a friend’s kitchen;

the work of her loving hands.

　

in the time since,

my wife and i

(with childish grins

and dripping chins)

have savored each one so fully

as to have numbered and named them

with our delight;

thanks-praying for these benisons

(as dear to us as fleeting youth) and

repenting our reckless pickle lust

even as we reached

with giggling, guilty fingers

for another …

　

one week ago,

the jar was full;

one week ago

the vibrant,

extraordinary young woman who

blessed us with

sunshine from a crock

was at our door --

today,

news of her passing.

　

incomprehensible, really,

that two pickles

in a mason jar

could be

all that remains --

the only tangible remnant

of her sweetness

in our life;

it is

so inexpressibly cruel

for the line between

here and gone

to be so fine,

the parting

so sudden.

　

here in our kitchen,

i stand in my bathrobe

feeling a chill

clear through

the closed door

of the refrigerator.

　

one week ago,

i would not have believed:

tonight

i open the refrigerator door

just to stare at

two pickles

in a mason jar

(two perfect, beryl lobes);

open the door,

hold my breath

and pray --

hoping against hope

that i will see them begin

to beat.

 

About Rich Follett:

Rich Follett has recently returned to writing poetry after a thirty-year hiatus. He lives in the sacred and timeless Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he joyfully teaches English and Theatre Arts for high school students. His poems have appeared in Paraphilia, Exercise Bowler, Calliope Nerve, Sugar Mule, Four Branches Press and Counterexample Poetics, for which he is a Featured Artist. He is the co-author of Responsorials (with Constance Stadler) and the solo collection Silence, Inhabited for NeoPoiesis Press.