poetryvlog.com

Welcome to poetryvlog.com
A weekly video reading of poetry by the poet.

Persistence
by Barbara Hoffman

Today I saw my sister at the mall,

a woman with long blonde hair,

heading into Macy’s.    Marge,

I almost called. But then a woman

in a rhinestone-studded jacket

walked out of Lord & Taylor.

There she is, and I started toward--

but I knew it wasn’t her.

She died a year ago,

yet she persists. Something in me

sees her sitting at the food counter,

re-applying lipstick before she leaves.

And I think, there are no clean cuts,

no unbloody severings,

always a blurred remnant of memory,

a fragment that jars time.

home