Signs and Signals
Would have done is a pleasing phrase I repeat for fun.
Magic spell, maybe. Nothing to it.
Should I cast it over the raccoon dead in the road?
He’s gone bit by bit to be with God.
It’s fine to believe what you want and,
true enough, be happy.
The dirt road to the lighthouse, the dizzying climb to the top—
Does it matter the light is now LED?
Don’t I know it, David said, meaning this, that, and everything.
It’s a birth of some kind, I tell myself, hand over heart,
old-time secret-keeper.
Sometimes you look for a change; sometimes, rounding the corner,
like it or not, a change comes looking for you.
Mary Ann Samyn is the author of seven collections of poetry, including The Return from Calvary and Air, Light, Dust, Shadow, Distance, both from 42 Miles Press. She teaches in the MFA program, writes about all things Cake & Poetry on Substack, and lives in WV and in her home state of Michigan.