My version of a Spoon River Anthology Poem
Katie Hanson
I grew up happy as a clam with
Bike rides and parties and trips to the park.
Sorrows I had my share of,
And problems too,
But most of the time life was sweet.
Dissection was my interest
So I became a forensic pathologist
Maybe it was a morbid choice; maybe it was a smart choice,
Either way it was the right choice for me.
And I always smelled of formaldehyde,
But David never cared.
He'd hug me after a long day even if
I'd been hugging corpses all day.
We met through friends
And soon fell together.
We exchanged our vows on a lovely day
And not long after brought the first of four-born home-
We gave the kids - and each other
Our best and all we had.
Holidays were spent in Dordogne and Pompeii
but Wyoming and Oklahoma, too.
Amy and Andrew were lifelong friends
But I lost Brandon at 18.
The yellow line was crossed and the day
We buried his yellow head was the day I died.
At least a part of me, the rest went towards
My family and my goals, my career and my life.
But I never got over his death
And still I am not.
I succumbed to cancer on my sixty-eighth birthday
With David and the kids at my side.
Happy with my life I was, but all the same-
Sometimes I wished David had been blonde.
Email: pinkgirl_02@yahoo.com
