New Covenant Bound

Remembrance

40 Remembrance After the last leg Jons Creek to Titus circling back east on the main highway dodging the logging trucks the tourists and travel trailers wayfarers all seeking an evening’s home away from home after finding the gravel turnoff past the wrought iron gates of Newly Cemetery just shy of Clark Ferry Bridge looking for the one place I still know well a rutted path along a low creek back into the sheltering cool of a woods and out again into the clearing where Dothan Pond gathers late sunlight clouds’ lost dominion in white ruins passing weightlessly over I leave the car make my way down the muddy flat of the creekbank kneel where the water folds its smooth sleeve gently around a maple root a racer snake slicking off like a signature into the weeds. 41 I sift a few white stones ungathered grains of time through my fingers brush away a bit of husk remaining and I’m remembering too Grandmother — “Sweet rose of heaven You seem forever Blushing in the noon-day sun To delight us every one. “And may you sweetly Fill life completely With your fragrance and your love Of your home in heaven above . . .” ...