Jo McDougall: Telling Time

My son and I walk away
from his sister’s day-old grave.
Our backs to the sun,
the forward pitch of our shadows
tells us the time.
By sweetest accident he inclines
his shadow,
touching mine.

Copyright 2017 Jo McDougall. From In the Home of the Famous Dead: Collected Poems (University of Arkansas). Originally published by Autumn House Press in Dirt by Jo McDougall, copyright 2001.