Sorry Gesture (Poetry)

He took flowers
up to the cemetery after church
today
just like other times        when
they were giving them
away
letting the congregation
help themselves
so he took some        although
they were past their best
to where she was pursuing her
eternal rest

It made me wonder
how many times in so many years
of married life
he’d taken home a sorry bouquet
for his ever-loving
wife
now it seems an afterthought
she’s been gone so very
long
and as gesture go — how could it hope to right
those things he’d got
dead wrong?