For Sweet Adelines, it’s all about
the show, and there they are,
the whole chorus, every woman
costumed for Halloween,

singing their hearts out, Mom
in her witch’s hat pointing
skyward, her plastic crooked nose
hanging from black glassless frames.

Kiss today goodbye,
the sweetness and the sorrow.
Wish me luck, the same to you,
but I can’t regret what I did for love…

She cannot stand unaided, her
hands on the walker’s rubber grips,
eyes forward, seeing so little,
but singing her heart out:

Look, my eyes are dry—
the gift was ours to borrow.
It’s as if we always knew, and
I won’t forget what I did for love…

She sang at three performances
last week, blending her baritone
with other women who feel like
like family—barbershoppers all,

harmonizing the world with a song,
ringing chords with such heart
it makes me weep halfway across
the large room. She lives for this.

Gone—
love is never gone,
As we travel on,
love’s what we’ll remember…

As long as she’s singing, she’s here,
enveloped by those who’ve slipped
into that great chorus in the heavens,
dear faces she envisions, voices she

still hears from the days when she
stood shoulder to shoulder with
her dearest friends who together
harmonized the world with a song.

Kiss today goodbye,
and point me toward tomorrow…

No matter how many tomorrows,
each day quickly turning into
another yesterday, may she join
them in song here or there.

Love’s what we’ll remember, indeed.