Let Widows Be Widows

By Laura LeHew

Let Widows be Widows is a collection of poetry in five sections. This collection is about the dead and the living. It illuminates various states of loss, hope, love and mourning from diverse points of view. 

 

It begins with denial. A door closing. Happenstance. We are unaware or under-aware of terminal illness or the shock of an unexpected sudden death. Words that we have left unsaid.

 

Widows examines how we bargain with ourselves. What we tell the dying, what we tell the living. It looks at how we modify our behaviors, experiences, to try to overcome the unsolvable dilemma of death.

 

We are witnesses, passing along the stories of our ancestors, friends, pets. It's about those who have gone to war or faced the great unknowing, how we are each a memorial and a monument to the other.

 

This book is about duality. When we are faced with peril, we roll a d20 die to see if it is going to affect us, and then we roll another die to determine how much damage is dealt. Every day we walk with the different sides of death, all the pieces converging windblown into our life. Finally, it is about the actions we take, our letting go, in order to overcome our grief. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unsolicited Press
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201948177

Book preview

Let Widows

Be Widows

poems

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Laura LeHew

Let Widows Be Widows

Copyright © 2022 Laura LeHew

All Rights Reserved

Published by Unsolicited Press

Printed in the United States of America.

First Edition.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

––––––––

Attention schools and businesses: for discounted copies on large orders, please contact the publisher directly.

For information contact:

Unsolicited Press

Portland, Oregon

www.unsolicitedpress.com

[e-mail]

619-354-8005

Cover Design: Kathryn Gerhardt

Editor:  S.R. Stewart

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ISBN: 978-1-956692-06-8

This book is dedicated to mom Janet Putnam Morrison.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

TRINITY

THE OLD ONES

ARE YOU THE SISTER?

DRIVING THROUGH WETLANDS

SCARS

3 DAYS PRIOR TO APRIL FOOLS’ THROUGH FRIDAY THE 13th—A FORTNIGHT OF RECKONING IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

HERITABILITY

OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE

POSSESSING NO PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTION

MARROW

EVENTUALLY, THERE IS SILENCE

WE HAVE TIME THOUGH

A FACE HELD IN DARKNESS

BE AWARE, BE PREPARED

SOME ASSEMBLY MAY BE REQUIRED

LET WIDOWS BE WIDOWS

2

IMAGINE

EXCEPT BY CHANCE

THE SAD MAN

CLOSURE

EMPHYSEMA

AN INVISIBLE FLUVIAL ZOO

THREE FUNERALS AND A WEDDING

GOING UNDER

JUNE BUG

LOSING MONDAY—

TORNADO ALLEY

DECOMPOSING DAD

PRELUDE

POINTS OF ATTRACTION

WRAITH

A DISTANCE TO BE TRAVELED

EN ROUTE

HOLDING UP

I LOVE TEAMWORK, AS LONG AS I’M IN CHARGE

PERSIMMON

3

RIDING BACKWARDS ON TRAINS

ELEGY FOR TWENTY-ONE MILLION WOMEN

11 x 10⁶

MEANWHILE

RECOUNTING THE DEAD

THE PORCELAIN BOWL

A STRANGER ASKS FOR HELP WITH THE LETTUCE

/ & |

THE FATE FOR WHICH WE MUST PREPARE

CTRL-ALT-DEL

WHAT WE GIVE UP

SALT

SELF PORTRAIT AS OUR NATION’S CAPITOL

4

THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS

FOR A MOMENT

RAVEN SONG CROW SONG

TOPAZ, THE GRUMPINATOR

POLICE—DO NOT CROSS

IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT; CONSIDERING; INASMUCH AS

AFTER THE RAPTURE

INSATIABLE

LIGHT LIKE A STAR

FLAME POINT

NO MORE SKY DIVING

WHEN THE TRINE BETWEEN THE MOON AND MERCURY TEMPERS THE VIBE

OCTOBER RAINS

5

GHOST RANCH

IN MY SKY OF SAND

IDA BY MOONLIGHT

ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND

AFTER THE EULOGY

CATCHING UP

A GRIM REAPER

COUSIN LARRY

WHAT THE DEAD SEE

THE BIRD OF TIME

NOVEMBER

ON THE EDGE OF DUSK

APPROXIMATION

PROPORTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

UNTITLED

CUMULONIMBUS

NOTES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

About the Author

1

hospice

a flight attendant announces

the door is closing

TRINITY

because words were left unsaid

& other words inked & inked & always

deleted

because dissipating rain etches

black ice & other treacherous

circumstances

the husband working late into the night

the wife on the couch, shopping

QVC

body without purpose

the husband contemplating dissolution,

a lover, settles into drink

body without dreams

the wife defiant trying & trying not

to surrender

among the alder, wild trillium

overrun the path, overtake the

hillside

nobody should have to

bury a child

THE OLD ONES

women like so many

snowflakes

ice crystals

falling &

falling

collide with earth

transcendent

skin opens

china-white femurs

hips, vertebrae fracture

the snow of women

drifts deep & wide

carpets their husbands—lovers

long gone to ground—

old ones, arms legs splay

etch angels into frost

I mistake the stairs for

floor wonder if this is

how it began for my

grandmother

a yellow crocus blooms just

outside my window

ARE YOU THE SISTER?

the nurse asks. 23 hours after another

test, an ultrasound, 3 months after

the MRI, after 17 blood work-ups,

after her doctor retires & my sister,

Karen, is in limbo.

Yes, I say, I am the sister, the guardian,

yes I say I have questions but the nurse

isn’t listening,