The Concrete Angel

    by K.B. Kincer

The road executes a sharp curve

pulling me toward the shoulder where

a concrete angel kneels in the grass.

Exhaust and gravel dust feather her wings

the grey of overcast skies. She bows her head

as if to contemplate the offerings at her feet:

silk flowers once purple and red, now bleached;

a plastic crèche, the birth of one child

at the foot of another’s death.

The statue marks the place on the hwy

where someone’s daughter leapt into light.

But this gray angel will never soar among

celestial bodies. The massive monument

presses against the earth’s breast.

Does the shrine help the mother transcend grief?

Or is it a marker for the girl, the portal back,

a place to return and feel love’s gravity.

© 2011 K.B. Kincer

* Another version of this poem with a different title was previously published in 2010 by Dappled Things.

K.B. Kincer was awarded an M.F.A. in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from Georgia State University and is currently in the doctoral program there. Her poems have appeared in The Healing Muse, Poet Lore, Dappled Things, Red River Review, The GSU Review, and elsewhere.

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