From Writing Notebook 2021.
I Just Wondered
what has happened to her
because
she hasn’t been here
here at our favorite watering hole
for such a long time
so long. Her footprints
the ghosts of every step she took here
all those nights
pacing and sitting and pacing and sitting
here at our favorite watering hole
fossils now
imprinted here. It’s been so long.
Do you think
someone
has eaten her?
2/17/21
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
Wow. I love the turn at the end!!
Thank you. You know, the watering hole, whether animal or the human equivalent, can be quite dangerous…!!!
I love this poem. It speaks so much to that feeling of the presence of someone’s absence, the way something missing can feel so palpable. I have often wondered, when watching natural history documentaries, how the rest of the herd responds emotionally to the death of one of their number.
Thank you. I started with the thought of watering hole as being a term for a bar, and then I thought of the literal meaning (with animals) and then I tried to write the poem so that it fit both. The idea of footprints/steps being in the ground’s/floor’s memory is what started the whole thing, I was thinking about how even though we can’t see them, footsteps always left behind a memory of themselves.
I used to think about that all the time when I briefly worked in a historic palace. The worn areas in the steps used to make me think of all of the centuries of people whose feet had travelled those steps before me.
Well that was an odd read 😆