Guest Post: The End of Something, by Louise Masino-Cotter

Fall Poetry Series: This is my 100th blog post! And to celebrate, I'm letting my mom do all of the work. Part of the apparitions project involved sharing poetry and photography from other talented writers and artists, in celebration of the book's publication and this incredible year of poetry. I promised another short poetry series this fall, which encompasses the poems I've shared in my non-poetry books, including This House: The True Story of a Girl and a Ghost, Maryland Ghosts: Paranormal Encounters in the Free State, and Where the Party Never Ended: Ghosts of the Old Baraboo Inn. Alas, Breakfast with Bigfoot lacks a dedicated poem, but makes up for it in poop jokes. This week, we'll take it all the way back to This House again, which features the beautiful poem, "The End of Something," written in 1981 by my mom, Louise Masino-Cotter:

It is not there, do you hear it?
The pulse does not die at the sound of it.

The heart does not crush at the weight of it.
Hands have quieted over the table top.

They are still and pleased with having nothing to do.
It is this end that they have prayed for.

Winter has shut itself off so suddenly; so has love.
Even the sun shows no mercy today.

"The End of Something," copyright 2022 Louise-Masino Cotter (previously published in This House: The True Story of a Girl and a Ghost)