You close the book,
the period of mourning begins.
The suicides hit hardest.
Hagridden Virginia Woolf
at 59, feeling madness coming on.
Luftwaffe bombs dropping,
Leonard a Jew.
I am spoiling your life.
I've lost all power over words.
In her fur coat, trudging
half a mile to the cold river,
weighting her pockets with stones,
plunging into the Ouse.
Three weeks until her body is found --
some children-- a floating log
they think at first.
A friend has died,
a favorite aunt.
You close the book.
Patricia Whiting's poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Encore, Modern Haiku, and Thorny Locust. Her chapbook Learning to Read Between the Lines (2000) was published by PPB Press. Her poetry is scheduled to appear in the upcoming Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. Her paintings can be viewed at http://www.patriciawhiting.com/.
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