Final Arrangements

I took pride
in my inability
to cry.

Now "Summer Fog"
by Raymond Carver
brings tears to me eyes:

"...She who loved
in April deciding /
to plant the sweetpeas
and who staked them
before they could climb."

We've discussed
final arrangements,
my mother and I.

April 29, 1996
8:17 pm

note: Raymond Carver, poet, b. 1938, d. 1988.

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