Ellen Austin-Li
On a Visit to St. Mary's Cemetery
The walk up the cemetery hill
looks like it did five decades ago,
though with more tombstones
and fuller trees. I stand breathless
in front of my father's grave,
bend to brush gathered dirt
from the dates. I've not stayed
with anything long enough
to make my name, like you,
I sigh. A chill wind lifts my hair,
raises the skin on my arms.
A red-tailed hawk circles
below clouds that race overhead,
a sunbeam appears and warms
my face—uplifted. And can't I see
I'm finally standing still?
Bio
Ellen Austin-Li's work has appeared in Artemis, Thimble Literary, The Maine Review, Salamander, Rust + Moth, SWWIM, and many other places. A Best of the Net nominee, she's published two chapbooks with Finishing Line Press: Firefly and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic. She earned an MFA in Poetry at the Solstice Low-Residency Program. Ellen co-founded the monthly reading series, "Poetry Night at Sitwell's," in Cincinnati, where she lives with her husband in a newly empty nest. Find her @www.ellenaustinli.me.