for Ella, poem by Sylvia Manning

Ella Goodwin stands on porch of Hovey Sanitarium, Glover, 1910

for Ella, para ella

Yesterday with sun and moon
both high to see in bright sky

me wishing my dearest was still around
for me to ask, to tell me why
           it was so

I remembered you
by 1910 a young widow

probably with things to ask or say
to him whom you’d loved
         who’d passed away

too soon, even of this
of the sun and the moon

El sol.  La luna.
Masculino, femenina
El, la, El la, El, la … Ella Ella

but discovered soon, another way,
the two are visible every day

somewhere, anyway,
anywhere, really,

except for the one day
after the night the moon is full.

Then the masculine sun will be alone,
solamente él, el sol, solo, en soledad.

She rose at sunset, then,
to be gone when he’d return.

                                                                     Sylvia Manning, December 2019