"Ashes" by April Lindner
When the undertaker dropped off
the box labelled with her name,
I took it gingerly, touching
not the container of ashes
but the handles of the tote bag
he bore her in like another
errand to be run. I hadn’t browsed
among the urns of polished wood and gilt
so she waits in plain black plastic
for her daughters to release her
into the river of her choosing
as she waited in her armchair
two towns over, tended
by strangers, all day
for her calls to be answered.
April Lindner has published two poetry collections—Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies including Contemporary American Poetry (Penguin Academics) and Lineas Conectadas (Sarabande Books). She also is the author of three Young Adult novels, Jane, Catherine, and Love, Lucy. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, she lives in Stockton, New Jersey.
