The Eulogy I Didn’t Give: poem by Wesley Sims

image by bapreston, on Pixabay, modified

The Eulogy I Didn’t Give

after Bob Hicok 

I’ve been listening for the revving of the ‘54 Chevy’s 

motor Dad’s been tuning. Or the buzz of the table saw

while he’s trimming cedar boards to build a hope chest

for my sister. My ears perked for the metallic whack-whack 

of the tractor mower so I can look out the window

and see he’s cutting lespedeza hay for the horses, 

or open the back door and sniff the air for a whiff 

of wild onions to know he’s just cleaning the pasture.

I’ve been trying on three of the hats he wore to decide

which one he’d be wearing today, maybe the one

of woven straw with a sun visor that allowed

the glint of his sky-blue eyes to show. I’ve inhaled 

again the weak scent of browned sweatbands to try 

to conjure his wet brow after a day working outside. 

I’ve strained to remember his pose as he looked 

toward the barn and fretted about the loose panel 

of roof tin that he couldn’t fix after climbing 

ladders had become too dangerous. Death seems

a white, wooden porch swing I look in for the man

who built it, who sat in it often to read the skies, 

to plan the next day, the next week, or just to ponder 

the state of humankind and the world. The earth 

I think gets turned, propelled forward night and day,

by the pendulum arcs of that chain-hung platform.

If you stop by some morning at 5:30 a.m., I’ll fix 

you his standard breakfast fare—eggs, bacon, a jelly-

and-butter biscuit, and heavily creamed coffee you can 

cool in the saucer or blow on for that first stimulating sip.

We could sit out on the front porch and watch for rain,

pray the clouds don’t portend the 100-year flood 

that stormed in and marked his silent repose 

in the funeral home, dropped an ocean 

in the cemetery, tossed tides we had to tread 

as we helped him set sail for that brighter shore.

_____________________________

Wesley Sims has published five chapbooks of poetry: When Night Comes (2013), 

Taste of Change (2019), A Pocketful of Little Poems (2020), Where Saints Have

Gone (2025), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Maturity (2025). He has

been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared

in Artemis Journal, Connecticut Review, Plum Tree Tavern, Proverse, Poem, Novelty Magazine, Quill & Parchment, Poetry Quarterly, Time of Singing, Word Gathering, 

and several other journals and anthologies. His website:

https://wesleysims884296882.wordpress.com/poetry-of-wesley-sims/

(August 2026 issue)