It’s been over twenty years
Since you passed away
Sadness in my heart
Gladness of memories
Subtle signs you send
Reach me as a mortal
Shows you still care
Quarters left in pathways
I remember how you delighted
When exchanging dollars at the post
For newly minted state quarters
Did you receive the ones we left?
Did you know your life would end at North Carolina?
Quarters left at your gravesite
Like stones left a Jewish markers
Quarters littered in pathways
Butterflies a popular symbol of loved ones breaking through Heaven
I find you throughout the bluebonnet flowers
I remember the daffodils you fondly passed along
In brown bottles wrapped in a spring poem
Sweet peas trailing on the shed
A touch of Heaven with
Pennies in pathways
Dimes the angels place Heaven sent
Fond memories of soil mingled with cedar
Reminds me of the work you did
Even in the heat of summer
Dimes in the doorways
A reminder my love of writing
Came throughout the generations through you
You seeded my fertile mind with yellowed issues
Of writer’s chronicles
Yellow pads scratched by pens
Containing spills from the confines
Of your mind
A mortal life
Eras of hardwork to overcome strife
Courage and chance
You provided me a lifestyle beyond
Circumstance
Liberal ideas to debate
College you encouraged
You moved me in lieu of my parents
Mountain laurel scent
Flower petals floating through air
That dead of winter
On top of the dormitory hill
December semester visits
Shaking the hand of my future husband
A smile and a silence acquiescence
You transferred me without resistance
A quarter found many Mother’s days
To show you know my daughter
Even without a mortal glance
Pennies in pathways that David pockets
Admonishing society of the waste
A penny richer
Quarters in pathways
Bluebonnets break through soil
Random pocket change year after year
Oh why?
Why?
Did you have to die?
I love the images you’ve created. Also, I’m intrigued by the symbol of pocket change, though I don’t always grasp the symbolism of each coin. Do I want to draw my own symbolism or do I want you to give us some clues? IDK.
These lines:
“Quarters left at your gravesite
Like stones left a Jewish markers”
Give us a clue. But these lines:
“Dimes in the doorways
A reminder my love of writing”
offer no clue I could find. Maybe the reference to
“yellowed issues
Of writer’s chronicles
Yellow pads scratched by pens.”
are is not just great imagery but also clues?
I did catch your subtleties in other lines. So maybe I missed something?
I like a poem I need to read again and again to grasp meaning for myself. I like your poem.
Thank you so much. My grandfather carried all kinds of pocket change when I was a kid and he would give me all of the ones with my birth year. Dimes typically represent angels as well as pennies luck, the quarters are the ones that remind me the most about him. He loved the state quarters series they were rolling out. We place quarters at his gravesite as the Jewish place stones at their loved one’s markers. The inferences are open to interpretation. Thank you so much for the feedback.