I was happy not to find your name upon the wall
Jackson, W.N., for even as I was confused
by the Winter Wonderland erected in the forecourt
the Wedding Hall to one side
(though surely all that fighting was precisely about all this pleasure?)
I was unsure how to be moved beyond sadness to forgiveness
even as my brain reconciled this as just the way things are
I merely proved Maya Angelou true
and could only remember how you made me feel
I did better with the snow, my longest hardest enemy
we – the snow and I – we were at least
together in our numbing chill
in agreement that freedom was not free
eleanor j jackson 