Margaret leans in, puzzlement crosses her face and clouds the sparkle behind her spectacled eyes. She brings her latte to her lips. “Tell me that again,” she says. “I hardly remember that.”

Clair pops a date in her mouth, “You don’t remember?” Margaret thinks there might be salt in her coffee, hopes Clair doesn’t choke on the pit.

“I might if you say it again. When did this happen?”

“The ...

There has never been a day I loved you more than today

Oh! How you have grown, changed

Oh! How you will grow, change still.

I will love you yet more,

Sasha. My youngest.

Yesterday you came downstairs from slumber

Your eyes strained into the early afternoon light

A sun-blinded bat

I asked you to shovel the snow. You groaned.

I love that too.

My teenager.

Your own being.

Enjoying the free...

Around every corner, a ghost

In this town.

Familiar, creeping, knowing

Invading the unknowing mind with memory and being.

It grabs hold, forcing surrender.

Impossible to see a corner

And not see the apparition lurking in it.

There: that afternoon, the bright sun, the patio, laughter and then…

Here: a woman scuffles forward on the sidewalk, pulling her belongings in a broken-down cart; you know...