War Return by Catherine Zickgraf

She’s mentally moving him in, refreshing 
the drawer of cotton undershirts, stacking
his tees in rectangles, ironing polo collars.

His irises will glow again as sapphire and 
jade waves of shirts layering the marriage 
quilt. She’s moving over, moving over to 
her own side of the bed. They’ll fuse their     
divided ship, co-captain it. Yet she’s been 
steering without him around iceberg teeth, 
her sweet boys clicked into their car seats.  

Steadying their rudder against a profound 
blindness, snow blowing over onyx water 
to sky, she holds hope he’ll return as kids 
waive their flags. She passes night to day 
praying they both awake to more sunrises
together before entering Heaven’s forever. 
They are ringed lovers, joined from inside. 

*Previously published in Bloodsugarpoetry, March 2018

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Catherine Zickgraf’s main jobs are to write poetry and fold laundry. Her work has appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Pank, Victorian Violet Press and The Grief Diaries. Her recent chapbook, Soul Full of Eye, is published through Aldrich Press. 

Read and watch her at caththegreat.blogspot.com