Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation
Presents the 2008 Kentucky Senior Poet Laureate


Barb McMakin

BARB McMAKIN, 54, Crestwood, Kentucky, is a member of the Green River Writers who describes herself as “salesperson.” Besides creative writing, she enjoys gardening and herding stock with her border collie, Lilly. This is her first SPL win. She was born under the astrological sign of Leo.

Going Home


I stroll down Longview
and remember all the times
we walked it together, your
red-tipped cane probing the ground,
your hand cupping my arm.

You'd love it today -
it's what you'd call
"my kind of weather" -
sunny with a penetrating warmth
that stays with you
for awhile.

The cherries are in bloom
and the maples, trunks hugged
by heart-shaped ivy, overhang the roadway
like the entrance to a new world. Clumps
of forsythia and orange tulips dot
the fenced yards and the Easter basket
birdbath still rests at Beechwood Road.

Do you know that Maynard
had to be put down three months
after you died? Or, that we buried
Katrina in back of the garden
since I couldn't keep her out anyway?
I think you'd both approve
of the rainbow trout wind chime
that serves as her marker.

Now, every time I stroke the cats
I hear you softly say, "Kitties
like to have their ears scratched."

Your CB tower is still
in the backyard at Utica Pike.
And you wouldn't believe
the size of the holly tree.
Wrought iron table and chairs
sit on the patio where we gathered
for picnics.

Tell Mom the river is up
in the bottoms and the herons
are fishing.

Barb McMakin
Crestwood, Kentucky