I like the Woods in Winter
I like the woods in winter
When there’s no snow on the ground
And the shadows of long lean trees
Hidden by summers green
Appear.
How intriguing
That just as the air turns cooler
The days shorter
Just as we add more protection,
More covering for our spare,
Skeletal nakedness
The trees drop their clothes;
Just as we go into hiding
(some call it hibernation)
the trees are revealed.
Pinky's Funeral
All the words I was to say were said
and so I waited, while you said good-bye
while you leaned over the edge
of your beloved’s last bed
and kissed his cheek
whispering some words of love that in my leisure
I like to consider
Stack up your few words against
my thousands and see
which ones come out on top.
*Rev. Judith Mensch served as a pastor in the United Methodist Church. She began writing poetry in the last years of her life, as a way of responding to and coping with breast cancer. She passed away in 2003.
