FINCH

Half-blind at the end, stuck

in memory’s shrinking bubble

hearing part of what was said,

she subsisted moment to moment

singing along with herself lines

from Gershwin, repeating a joke,

a half-smile lighting on her lips

like a finch in a wind. Did I,

while she lived, see that

before I rushed off? I see

her shuffling through a hushed

corridor toward obligatory lunch,

stopping a small parade of walkers

to utter a bright flashing word.

Michael Lauchlan's poems have appeared in numerous publications, including New England Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, North American Review, English Journal, Dark Horse, Nimrod, Tar River Poetry, Harpur Palate, Southword, and The Cortland Review.