There has been a terrible mistake

A poem for Beth

Photo: Joe Crimmings

There has been a terrible mistake / You were not supposed to leave this week / 
We had you slated in / for some time next year / We had not finished processing the paperwork / to release you / We did not have our minds / in order / Not yet /

But you were always ahead on your project plans / You never missed a deadline / 
and you always had your layouts / arranged just so and the cutlines perfect / 
You loved a good story/ and delighted in a scoop / Oh, silly you / 
You were always disrupting expectations but this / is unacceptable / Really, I mean it / 
and your mid-year performance review / will certainly reflect my distress /
with your unexpected departure / You could have given more notice /

How could you leave us so soon? / We were not ready / We had not hired anyone new / 
We had no job description prepared / We had not cleaned out your desk / 
or moved the succulents you carefully watered / Let’s face it you only watered them /
sometimes / but it didn’t matter / because they didn’t really need much care / 

You needed more care / than we knew / We chose to believe that your bright coloring / 
at the Happy Hour last week / meant you were bouncing back / but it was makeup / We thought your hair was growing in / but it was just fluffed up with your jaunty pink headband /

Maybe we knew but / we didn’t understand / We didn’t approve this in the system / 
There has been a terrible mistake / You were not supposed to die this week /

The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Wini Moranville, Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains, Washington, D.C.

Macey Spensley, The Midwest Creative, Davenport and Des Moines

Larry Stone, Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with Iowa Capital Dispatch

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