Three Poems by Nancy Scott: My Mother's Headstone, A Penny Saved, The Nature of Beyond

Three Poems
by Nancy Scott

My Mother's Headstone

On my last, long distance
Christmas pilgrimage by phone,
my oldest living
aunt said my mother's headstone
was "a little crooked" on the hilltop
forty miles away. It worried
her, though she excused it to settling
ground. I laughed, sure
that a hand from above had tilted
the angel holding the Bible
I had chosen as a hopeful
bribe for my absence
and for God's attention.
My mother didn't dislike the stone.
She just wanted us to know
that being upright and straight,
even though you might
miraculously become
an angel, was still
boring.

A Penny Saved

She gives you the penny
with a heart-shaped
hole cut in its center, never
mistaken for easy charity or extra sales
tax. But what to do with it--keep it
in a deep pocket of a favorite coat,
proclaim its odd luck
on your desk,
tell gamblers it might
win Saturday Spin,
or give it to someone
who then might remember
you? Only a penny
valued by what is carved
in or out.

The Nature of Beyond

Without you, I have come to love sunrise,
to crave its beginning embrace.
You approve my choice,
send the insistent feathered shadow.
July's robin sings loudest
on your birthday, insists
I open the kitchen window
to unconditioned cheer.

In August, the robin will stop
singing, his leaving slower than yours,
but I will learn how not
to lose him as he soars
toward October's husked
light and I begin to write
these thank-you notes.

Nancy Scott, Easton PA, is an essayist and poet. Her over 550 bylines have appeared in magazines, literary journals, anthologies and newspapers, and as audio commentaries. Recent work has appeared in Burnside Review,Contemporary Haibun Online, Thema, Whistling Fire, and Wordgathering. Her third chapbook, co-authored with artist Maryann Riker, is entitled The Nature of Beyond.

Copyright 2012 Nancy Scott © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.