Wrapping Up
You have buried your mother and put
a memorial bench on a high hillside where
the wind blows sunsets straight through
and it’s always better to wear something warm.
A great walker, your mother.
Cities, holloways, rugs by cradles.
As she got older her back bent
with the weight of it all
but she laughed, wiggled her toes in the sand
of her favourite beaches. Wrap up, she said, kindly.
You’ll regret it if you don’t
but you moved at a thousand miles an hour
so were always warm.
And now
it’s cold on the hill and the bench is ready.
You pause. Put on your cape, take off your shoes.
Sit down, take your thoughts, squinch your toes.
Start to whistle.
Pushcart- and Forward-nominated Jennifer A. McGowan is a disabled poet who has also had Long Covid for over three years. Despite this, her sixth collection, How to be a Tarot Card (or a Teenager) was published by Arachne late 2022. She has won a number of competitions, and placed and been commended in many more. She’s a re-enactor, prefers the 15th century to the 21st, and lives in Oxford.