Something I am working on

I stayed away for a long time
if I didn't go back then I wouldn't
be able to drive by her house and know
I could not turn into her driveway.
I wouldn't see a lawn where her garden
had always been.
See someone else's car in the driveway.

If I'm not there then she still is
she's the cat in the box,
still walking every morning,
tending that garden.
She just hasn't called in a while.
Probably busy.

I visit her grave for the first time
in the spring of last year.
This fall, at a family reunion,
I see how alive she is in the eyes
of my aunts and uncles and my sister
and my Dad.

We take a family picture on the deck.
I hit the timer on my camera and run
back to the gang. Standing close
cramming us all in the frame,
touching each other, feeling alive
we could say her name if we needed
to smile.