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Lily
by Ron Koertge

No one would take her when Ruth passed.
As the survivors assessed some antiques,
I kept hearing, "She's old. Somebody
should put her down."

I picked her up instead. Every night I tell her
about the fish who died for her, the ones
in the cheerful aluminum cans.

She lies on my chest to sleep, rising
 and falling, rising and falling like a rowboat
fastened to a battered dock by a string.

You can find this poem in Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection.