Frannie Lindsay: “In Memory”
IN MEMORY
for J
I have told no one of the pine floor
where we gave our tongues and trembling
knees, where strands of wind
still tangle whitely with our hair;
how we could hear St. James’s old bell
summoning the sinners
while our day’s end beckoned primly
as a sick child’s nursemaid;
but if you’re tired now, I’ll come alone
across that evening dim with fireflies
sworn to signal
you and me and no one
else; and if you ask me, I will lie down
as though you were right here
beside me, and I’ll catch one flickering
a moment—then, because
you loved me,
I will open wide my hand,
and free her.
Frannie Lindsay is the author of six volumes of poetry, most recently The Snow’s Wife (CavanKerry Press, 2020) and If Mercy (The Word Works, 2016). She is the winner of the Benjamin Saltman Award, the Perugia Prize, the May Swenson Award, and the Washington Prize. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Lindsay has taught numerous workshops on the poetry of grief and trauma. She is also a classical pianist.