No Regrets

If I could take it all back Every wrong ever wrought Every regrettable thing Every broken wing I'd lay it all to rest In an unmarked plot Over which I would plant Quiet thyme And no-leaf clovers Lilies of denial And forget-me-nows There would be no memorial No elegy, no eulogy No monody, no dirge Not even a calaverita Unless one is desperate Enough to count this poem This nobituary, if you will No lamentation No regrets No go-away birds No mourning doves Nor egrets to bear the pall Only leave the dead featherless Laid down without down To comfort them And the egrets Stand stilted and white As nothing Melancholy As marble statues In the silk gray dusk Like lilies on a grave.