THE ABSENT PLACE

Her husband rests

in the slanting Adirondack chair,

centered on the lawn he’s just cut 

for the first time this summer—

the one they know is her last,

though she’s not yet sixty.

He savors the fragrant spice

of shorn grass and blooming lavender,

forgetting, for a moment,

her countless tumors’

malignant blooming.

She heats water in a copper pot,

stirs in sugar, simmers 

hummingbird nectar,

as the tiny whirring birds arrive: 

one, then two, then one again,

hovering in the absent place

where the feeder once hung.

Laura Foley is the author of four poetry collections. Joy Street was released in July, 2014 (Headmistress Press). The Glass Tree (Harbor Mountain Press), won the ForeWord Book of the Year Award in Poetry (Silver) and was a Finalist for the New Hampshire Writer’s Project, Outstanding Book of Poetry.