MARY L. MAZZOCCO

A WIDOW SPEAKS

I saw you in a dream, so close
I could touch you. So close
I could forget the dank musk
of solitude in sheets rank
with sweat. So close
I no longer feared
the haunted walkways of my days--
the frayed stairs where you stumbled,
the dock spellbound with stain
where you hit your head. The undertow
of the bleak loch obliging you
to agelong slumber.

Did you have time to wonder why
your true love betrayed you, why
your limbs so lithe in sport and robust
in love no longer served your will?

I had time, so much time, to wonder why
you dallied with the trim sail, the bold wave,
the far horizon.

A TREE ON CALIFA STREET

Its branches beckon me
each time I pass, a plea
to return to the womb
of its age-old branches,
canopied myth ever green
like the fields of our childhood
games, innocent of the broken earth
where the tree's gnarled and twisted roots
rise up to meet its leaves,
dropped like tears of sorrow
for siblings never born.

A former Ohio resident, Mary L. Mazzocco is a freelance writer and poet who
lives in Goodyear, Arizona. Her articles and essays have appeared in various
publications in Ohio and Arizona.

Her poetry has appeared in Ohio Writer, Potpourri Magazine, Sandcutters,
Central California Poetry Journal, The Hyper Texts, The Ghazal Page and Poetic
Diversity. A poem titled "So Bold Among the White Lilies" won first place for
poetry in the Skyline Writers, (Ohio) literary contest in August, 2000. She
is a member of the Arizona State Poetry Society and the National League of
American Pen Women.