richard luftig

Memorial


These quiet weeds
wilting between flowers
and sadness continue

to brush in single stroke
against a jaded fall.
Above, a laughter

of geese fly in squadron
like veterans returning
from foreign campaigns.

There. A sound
of chimes in crystal
air weds with secretive wind.

I feel your heartbeat,
hear your breath
lingering like leaves

who have lost
their better branches.
Hearing my name,

I turn away
answering
the wrong person.


Richard Luftig is a professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio. He is a recipient of the Cincinnati Post-Corbett Foundation Award for Literature and a semi finalist for the Emily Dickinson Society Award. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland, Bulgaria and England. His third chapbook of poems was published in 2007.