KAYLA'S ASHES, by Kathryn Magendie

This piece is by Kathryn Magendie, who may be found at www.tendergraces.blogspot.com. Kat's first novel Tender Graces was published last year. She's a fine writer and a lively, lovely woman. You will enjoy her blog, so please give it a visit. Today is her birthday. Happy Birthday, Kathryn!!!!!

KAYLA'S ASHES

The mahogany box is heavy

and inside you lie in a plain plastic baggie.

Oh! I cry. Oh! You must be released,

for you do not belong inside,

but instead everywhere we walked together

in this mountain cove. I dig,

bits of you lodge into my fingernails,

you are softer and finer than I imagined,

but then what would I ever imagine but

your solid body and soft fur and big brave heart?

I let you drift through my fingers

into the wind that’s come down from

the mountain ridge, and as you drift,

sunlight filters through you so that

I see layers and layers of you

and sun and light and prisms of color

that aren’t really colors at all but memories

of color; the heaviest parts of you

fall to the ground and lie bone-white bone,

but the light of light of you hovers

in the air and dances,

dances and hovers and lingers

before all of you slowly disappears,

dissolves in the cool morning air

in the cove at Killian Knob.

I am awed, then I am alone.

Good old girl. That’s my girl,

that’s my good good old girl.