the wide dark porch

her house

was next to cemetery.

a white clap board

arrangement,

ordered through

the Sears catalog

in 1932.

it had a large wide porch

to rock on.

to sip tea,

or eat.

to gossip, or laugh.

and in hard times,

weep.

there were chimes

that sang

all night.

she'd sit there

under the stars,

mostly alone in later

life, and look out

across the rolling hills

of the dead,

and wonder

what will mine be like.