Bye-Bye

for Lovelle

My mind knows that's not her strolling
down fourth avenue in that silly little faux
fur-trimmed cap, but on the bus I do
a double-take then recall, that's right,
the newly dead pull that final trick all the time

Oz Hopkins Koglin, a community activist and journalist, grew up in St. Louis. She is a 1974 graduate of Reed College and often writes about America's Jim Crow era. She lives in Portland, Oregon.