Death Leaves No Tracks (Poetry)

For Moira

I think of you often
more often I think
than your family does
your husband, your daughter
even your sisters so different from you
and your son out of touch with your dreams

We talked of it often
that vast snowy waste
and imagined its freedom
its terrible beauty
that stretches forever a cold invitation
and God in his igloo somewhere at its heart

I dream of you sometimes
your voice has an echo
that rings across acres
of Winter’s quiet land
and I stand at its edge all alone in the whiteness
no compass — no clue — your location a blank

I grieve for our friendship
shared secrets of girlhood
and lately more often
age brings you to mind
never sure when I’ll follow — unsure how to find you
in those unbroken snowfields where Death leaves no tracks