From the collection And Don’t Come Back, 2021.
Ah, That Last Postcard You Sent
On the front of the postcard:
a photo of a square in a big city
glass skyscrapers
a gray stone church
On the back
the legend says:
A view of Flenbedening Plaza and Beedliola Church
and you wrote:
Greetings from
your friend with the big mouth
told you I’d miss you
royal pain that you are
remember the Halloween you dressed as a nurse
I met your twin here in the city
she had white hair she wore in a ponytail
and pressed a stethoscope she claimed
could amplify the trend of my future
cold against my right temple. What powerful thoughts
you have in here, she told me. Just forget about them.
Truth is I feel good. I will be home soon.
And as fond as I ever was of you, that I am still.
Until I see you again.
7/31/20
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
This is intriguing. It’s like a dream that I don’t quite understand but keep thinking about.
Thank you. I like to write letters and I LOVE postcards, sending and receiving. When I read a book of collected letters, let’s say, I really love how they give a quick informal glimpse into personal things. A postcard is even better, I think, and more focused since it is so short. I thought of the idea of postcards and next thing you know there was this poem!
Ahh–interesting!
Oh Claudia, what a stunner! Those last few lines … I am beside myself.
Thank you. What a great compliment, thank you. I love postcards and sending them and getting them. And how people seem to pour out feelings even though anyone along the card’s path can read it. This poem kind of wrote itself.
I really like this idea, that just the briefest of communications on a postcard can maintain a connection between people.
I love postcards and if I go anywhere I make sure to send some, I think they are a very concise, pure form of communication and in some ways that is strange, since anyone can read what is said.
I try to send postcards to family members when I am on vacation but they can be hard to find these days.
I know, I am sad about that, so I have had to lower my standards as to what views I choose since you have to take what you can get. Then of course I feel fine about drawing all over the images, though!
I’m smiling. It isn’t what was written but what was left unsaid! Genius!
Thank you. Postcards are sort of their own special form of communication, I think, being short and so public.
How our lives and memories overlap and transform…(K)
It’s layers, just more layers, and as time goes on I enjoy more and more sifting among the levels and finding new things in old memories.