Forgotten
      for Jeanne Vennemeyer

Through sleepy veils
of half-remembrance;
in the morning
you hear the descent of
footsteps on your staircase.
When their weight finds
the one that groans, that one
you meant to mend -
you will know it was me.
I always walk
on the broken step, the
others all avoid it,
I walk on it
to remember.

Barney F. McClelland