FOOTFALLS

by Emily Black


I breathe air perfumed with age, polished
cleanliness and the lingering fragrance of people
who, over many years, came in to pick up
their mail or drop a letter into a heavy metal slot.

I imagine those letters to be for loved ones
far away. I close my young eyes and see words
written in a graceful hand, words of courage
and longing.

I float in the hollow sound of a dime I dropped
as a child on marble floors surrounded
by brass-doored mail cubbies with their mysterious
combination-lock handles.

There was a blind man behind the coffee-shop
counter on the second floor of this ancient post
office building. He was my friend. He knew me
by the sound of my footfalls as I entered his shop.

Though I am old now and he is gone from this earth,
our friendship is still a comfort to me. He is part
of the silken web of memories I’ve woven that bind
my life into a tapestry of love.


* * * * *

Emily Black, the second woman to graduate in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida, enjoyed a long engineering career, and in time, blended that with a career as a Doctor of Oriental Medicine. She is published in numerous journals. Her first poetry book, The Lemon Light of Morning, was published by Bambaz press in 2022 and her second poetry book, We Feed Dragons to the Moon, by the same publisher in March 2024.