Another six weeks after writing “For Caroline,” I wrote a second poem for my recently-deceased friend Caroline Mitter, this time on what would have been her thirty-second birthday.
“For Caroline, on Her Birthday”
13 December 2019, in Hyattsville, Maryland
It was your birthday on Tuesday…
the first one you weren’t here for.
In a way, Tuesday is a good day for it:
Tuesdays are sacred to St. Martha,
and she reminds me of you.
You were both wise and outspoken,
and firmly spoke truth to unlistening power,
just as Martha told-off her god.
You were caring and strong-willed,
and worked through suffering to care for your family,
just as Martha made sure the needful was done.
You were skilled and patient with animals,
and with the dragons you struggled with,
just as Martha climbed into a cave to tame a dragon.
So let me light a candle for you both,
and let me learn to have the strength
to walk in your footsteps, and in your memory.