To a Widow, Living Alone

Meredith Davies Hadaway

i.    Fireflies

Without stars, we must
navigate by what’s pulsing
here in front of us.


ii.   Open

Throw the doors open—
whatever comes in, you need
the light and the view.


iii.  Travel

Even the journey
that takes you from one room to
another moves you.


iv.  Safety

A moist wind carries
the last of the storm. Inside,
too, I feel it go.


v.   Weeds, waist-high 

Yellow flowers spring
from the tangles. I did not
plant them—they flourish.


vi.  Fragments

My life, scattered as
moonlight through clouds, still bright in
some of its pieces.


vii.  Fireflies (again)

Pinpricks of light in
tonight’s dark furnace, small flames
hide in the ashes.

Meredith Davies Hadaway has three published collections of poetry, including At the Narrows, winner of the 2015 Delmarva Book Prize for Creative Writing. She will serve as the Sophie Kerr Poet-in-Residence at Washington College, spring, 2022.