Alexis Rhone Fancher

When My Son Is Dead 16 Years

After you died, my
Beautiful boy,
Chaos ruled my life.
Desperate I was, to find you,
Even hired a private detective to
Follow you into the Afterlife,
Given he could pick up your scent.
How do the dead do it?
Integrate the living.
Join hands in a ghostly dance,
Keep one foot in each world –
Love?
Madness?
No. A tether to each
Other’s heart.
People, meaning well,
Quote Scripture,
Rescue my resurrection poems
So they feel better.
Today, you are dead 5,840 days.
Unfathomable. I still
Veer off course,
Wait for you by the door marked
X-It as if you’ll reappear. One day,
You’ll be dead longer than you lived.
Zip it! I scold myself, each year. Move on.

Author: Alexis Rhone Fancher

Poet/photographer Alexis Rhone Fancher is published in Best American Poetry, Rattle, The American Journal of Poetry, Spillway, Plume, Diode,The Pedestal Magazine, Duende, Vox Populi, Gargoyle, Elysium Review, and elsewhere. Her photos are published worldwide. She’s authored ten poetry collections, most recently, TRIGGERED, (MacQueens) and BRAZEN. (NYQ). A coffee table book of over 100 of Alexis’ photographs of Southern California poets will be published by Moon Tide Press in early 2025. She calls the Mojave Desert home.
www.alexisrhonefancher.com

Plume: Plume Issue #159 November 2024