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"Easter"
by Linda Benninghoff

You blew bubbles
From a bubble kit
In the bookstore restaurant
Saying, I don't care if they kick me out.
I think you are ushering in the spring
Although there are fine lines in your face
And I don't always believe in your magic.

All winter,
You went from crowded diner to diner
Where you laughed and talked
With strangers.
You watched TV
(British comedies, movies, Jeopardy)
In a rented room;
We didn't get together 'til Easter.

Like someone
Whose wonderment is dying,
You sought it again
In a field where you fed horses.
The roan mare nuzzled you,
And the Apoloosa swished her tail.

Once at dusk, you took your car
Through scraggly woods
To the yet-unmarked grave
Of your husband
Wanting magic again.

Linda Benninghoff has published in about 60 magazines, both online and in print. She's published two chapbooks, Departures and The Street Where I Was a Child. Linda translated The Seafarer from Anglo-Saxon; the translation appears at http://www.electrato.com. She won the Poetry Superhighway contest last year and was a finalist this year.