You were on the roof, tanned, your muscled arm flexed,
Hammering a shingle. The sun
Had bleached your hair. Your shirt was plaid,
The sleeves rolled high. You didn’t see me
Watching you. Then you glanced down and
Waved. Clouds rode the sky like wranglers
On white horses. It would be sixty years before
We’d say goodbye.
Joan Colby (1939 – 2020) was a poet whose work was deeply rooted in nature, and her love of horses and birds. She published over 25 books, including The Salt Widow and The Kingdom of the Birds, both of which were published in the last few months of her life. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications including Poetry, Atlanta Review, GSU Review, Portland Review, Gargoyle, The Spoon River Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, the new renaissance, Grand Street, Epoch, Mid-American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Kansas Quarterly, Minnesota Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and many others. A native of the Midwest, she bred and raised Thoroughbred horses on a small farm in Northern Illinois.