Poem by Barbara Rockman

Mourning Doves
remembering my mother

I loved them on splattered
deck railings
at her Sanibel home
above palm
bougainvilla
and coarse grass
beyond acrid bayou
and non-native pine
they coo-coo cooed
pest pigeon
of the gulf coast
their tremulous moan
premonition
in soft gray undertones
now haunts my desert home

above cholla  scrub oak
and blond grasses
they wobble
the inland
cracked-paint
railing which I grip

and mimic their shudder
quaver and awkward
loneliness
until out loud  as they
do not know when to stop
I loose my own guttural
grief song
onto morning

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