Old Shirt
I hold in my hands
A checkered blue and black flannel shirt
My mind floods with memories
Of trips taken together
Bought in Canada half a century ago
First worn as we canoed the Matagami River
Now, fabric tattered
The blue faded but was still bright inside
Unlike me
Faded inside and out
Before I throw you away
I look
At one of my favorite photos
My wife and me overlooking Machu Picchu
Our backs to the camera
Wearing you
Both of us still bright
Next to me, my wife
Wearing a red blouse
Her hair long the way I loved it
Tied in a long ponytail
Holding hands gazing out towards
The Andes Mountains towering
Over the Valley
The past behind us
Looking out wondering
What the future will bring.
Michael De Rosa
Michael De Rosa is a writer from Wallingford, PA, recently retired as a professor (emeritus) of chemistry at Penn State Brandywine. Interests are travel, photography, and birding. The writer has published a short non-fiction piece “Boiled in Blood” in Ariel Chart and a poem "Ten Years Old Again" in Trouvaille Review.
Gorgeous work
ReplyDelete