We wandered through my grandfather’s house
sorting plates and twigs
and throwing pebbles out the window.
In the yard, swifts tangled in our hair
and we couldn’t find our way back.
We met two women coming back from a wedding,
one in a beaded vest. They gave us a glass of wine
and for years we quarreled about recipes.
We followed the wide path out of town
and found our own house blackened.
In a clearing between two birches
were our broken pots and mildewed clothes
and I wept for the things grown old without me.
Samn Stockwell lives in Marshfield, Vermont. She has published poetry in Ploughshares, Seneca Review, and The New Yorker. She is the author of two poetry collections: Theater of Animals, which won the National Poetry Series, and Recital, winner of the Editor’s Prize at Elixir Press. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and has taught for many years at the Community College of Vermont. She also works at the Family Center of Washington County. (updated 12/2011)