Echoes of Yesterday, by Randal A. Burd, Jr.

Comfy Chair, by Run Ran (Canada) 2007. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Echoes of Yesterday

She often sat here decades long before
The writing there was added to the wall,
Wrapped snugly in her favorite knitted shawl,
Forgetting pains she'd chosen to ignore.

Her memory has faded like this chair--
Its finish chipped away, its cushions torn--
Few people now around were then to mourn,
And fewer still know who was sitting there.

It's easy to forget she settled here
And lived and worked with dreams of better days.
An optimist, she'd often count the ways
Tomorrow'd be the highlight of her year.

Yet now this soul has long returned to dust;
Possessions left to chip and fade and rust.

Randal A. Burd, Jr.

This poem was first published in Nine Muses Poetry.

The image provided is not the original source of the poem, but a similar one.

Randal A. Burd, Jr. is a married father of two and an educator who works with the disadvantaged in rural Missouri. He holds a master's degree in English Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Missouri. Randal is currently the Editor-in-Chief of  Sparks of Calliope  magazine. His latest collection of poems,  Memoirs of a Witness Tree, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in Summer 2020.