Visitation
I sit with you in silence
in this place of days spent,
car window down so
morning’s dribble freckles my hand
on the wheel.
Were your knuckles growing fatter,
fingers stiffening, at fifty-one?
It’s only their softness, a quietude,
faded smell of dinner’s
chopped onions lingering on skin
I know now.
And although you left to lie
under a stone
etched with my words, your voice
still worries the wind.
I am not orphaned. You have not gone.
-Cynthia Ventresca
Cynthia Ventresca is the winner of the NinaAlvarez.net Poem of the Month Contest, July 2018.
Cynthia discovered her vocation at the age of seven, when she penned her first poem about her affection for a stuffed Koala bear. Her passion for poetry persists, with work published in various print and online journals. Cynthia is a lifelong resident of Wilmington, DE, where she still resides with her patient partner of many years, Micheal, and five adoring cats.
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