Nancy Watts
Excerpt from KotaPress Poetry Anthology Volume 3, 2003

Working Toward Tomorrow

They called to say
the funeral would be on a Monday

But I mourned that loss long ago

I was told of the figureheads
that would be in attendance

I heard the names
of the spectators and scavengers

An Ivan Ilych’s who’s who at best

But I cried those tears when I was expendable

After burying the demons and ghosts
left in the dust of another’s life pursuit

Still…
Who will be there for them

So they can say
“I am sorry for your grief.”

So they won’t need to pull at the guilt beneath their collars
when they realize the true love for this soul
had been used up, leaving behind a wooden casement

And I did love…

Knowing the sum of the whole
the shortcomings, and burned bridges
I loved regardless

But it wasn’t enough
And now it isn’t at all…

Author Bio
Nancy Watts has been published in many small press publications including KotaPress and has also been included in several anthologies such as Love Is Ageless and Grandmother Earth. She is a member of the New England Writers/Vermont Poets Association and Virginia Poets Society. Her first collection of poetry is Of Ways Of Looking At A Woman by Rosecroft Publishing.