“Remains”

i.

I dream my mother and two cats
are alive again but keep escaping. Windows
open. Windows shut.

ii.

A small boat on the
dark river. Lights from the bridge
sway on the surface.

iii.

We no longer see
many stars—what other fires
have we extinguished?

iv.

Water flows around me—grief
and love, the changing tides.

v.

Wave after wave, years
lap at the shore, stack driftwood,
then wash it away.

vi.

Learning that a friend has died
months afterwards, same shock—
but without wondering how
we will go on.

vii.

Every drop of river, rain, and sky, an overflow.

viii.

When you are gone, I will
have to learn to write my
name with my
left hand.

Meredith Davies Hadaway is the author of three poetry collections, including At The Narrows (winner of the Delmarva Book Prize for Creative Writing). She has received fellowships and awards from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Maryland State Arts Council. She holds an MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts and was, for ten years, poetry editor for The Summerset Review. Hadaway is the Sophie Kerr Poet-in-Residence for Spring 2023 at Washington College.