The old cedar sheds strips of paint

in every wind and gust of rain.

Almost twenty-five years old, it peels

off the years, as if it could turn back time.

But it can’t.  Its dry, blackened grooves

speak only of what is: years and years

of seasons my mother did not live to see

after sitting by her new fence and saying

“Look how beautiful all this is.”

LINDA OPYR, the Nassau County Poet Laureate 2011-13, is the author of eight collections of poetry. Her poems have appeared in The Hudson Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Atlanta Review, The Paterson Literary Review, Crannog, Antiphon, The Seventh Quarry/ Swansea Poetry Magazine, and The New York Times.