I Stop Writing the Poem by Tess Gallagher
Tess Gallagher is Raymond Carver’s wife. I think she wrote this after he died. More of the discussion (well, notes, really) here. It is raining again. Michael Whalen’s I Have Loved You for a Thousand Lifetimes is on repeat.
I Stop Writing the Poem
Tess Gallagherto fold the clothes. No matter who lives
or who dies, I’m still a woman.
I’ll always have plenty to do.
I bring the arms of his shirt
together. Nothing can stop
our tenderness. I’ll get back
to the poem. I’ll get back to being
a woman. But for now
there’s a shirt, a giant shirt
in my hands, and somewhere a small girl
standing next to her mother
watching to see how it’s done.