Fern
15 Years and 8 Months
She must have heard the keys, and somehow known
To heave herself, too stiff to go by right,
Into the boot, and make the beach her own
One final time beneath a Friday night.
Too deaf to call, too blind to read the shore,
She ran as if the years had fallen loose,
A puppy still. We watched. We didn’t know
What watching her so freely meant to lose.
The extra …
