Cold Windy Day
I watch out the window
For my neighbor.
I haven’t seen him
Since November.
I watch for him every day.
He decided to leave and he did.
Obit was in the paper
Last month.
Neighbor and I
Feed the cat now.
He lived there a long time
Inhabited those spaces of the yard.
A gardener who planted fruit trees
And gave away all the fruit.
He was always out there kneeling
Or spreading mulch around the plants.
I’ll keep watching
Out the window.
One of these days
he will be there.
I can feel it.
Susan Ward Mickelberry is a writer, editor, poet, and long-time yoga teacher. Her poetry collection And Blackberries Grew Wild was published by Roadside Press in 2024. Awards include a 2024 Pushcart nomination. Poems appear in many publications including This is Poetry: Volume IV: Poets of the South. She also participates in regional poetry readings and events, including Civic Media Center’s Poetry Jam. Her most recent reading was at the Lynx Bookstore in Gainesville. She is 2025 Formal Poetry Editor for Bacopa Literary Journal and earned an MA English Literature from the University of Florida.
