New Names

NEW NAMES



for Pat Valdata


1

Cherry blossoms blow along the ground
and green buds promise leaves to come,
closed walkways send us west and nothing's
mirrored in the murky pond.

She notes that gulls soar much as she does
when the clouds build just this way.

She paces me, stride for stride, sees
mallards, heads buried in the slime.
She seems entranced with winged things.


2

Here, the cherries blossom still a little
north and east of where we stand.
The path leads down beside a polished wall
that sprouts the names of one war's dead.

New faces blossom, new letters grow
from black wings struggling to rise, but
anchored in the hill and in our minds.

New names to link old remains men
and women who will not grow old.
The wings reflect, although the pond does not,
cherry blossoms in the April sun.



© by H. Palmer Hall


Posted over on Valparaiso Poetry Review