Ashes and Echoes by Kevin Wallace
I brought her to the forest, the day the snow melted. I brought her to the clearing where we had watched squirrels in November; to the wood where she sang as we slept in the grass; to the trees where the crows called to greet us. I brought her to the forest; to the robin's tumble down garden; to the clearing where we once found the stars in melt-water ponds. I brought her ashes there, beside the river, where she taught me to listen to it laugh as frost tickles at its flood. I scattered her where she lives in my heart, and listened for her voice but heard nothing- nothing-but the echoes in the wood.