Illustration © Eric N. Peterson

RBG

There’s a flurry of judicial collars lining the clouds.
Every decision and every dissent stays in the air like musical breath.
With your penchant for opera, you were a fermata of wisdom.
Holding on through the ravages and chaos.
Pioneer and epic, full of verve and mind shattering strength.
Wearing resistance and resilience on your soul.
Supreme being, SuperShero, legendary icon for good.
You will remain larger than life in our memories.
Breathing your last breath on Rosh Hashanah is said to be the way of
the righteous.
You were Notorious, thrilling, doing what you were put on Earth to do.
You leave behind stardust and legal briefs and pushups and tenacity.
You were the first in your class.
You were one of a kind.
You are remembered with respect.
The opera glasses hang in the air waiting for more and more and more
to see how you became music.
Through the sky, wisdom sings our hopes awake.
Your legacy still lives on Earth and every constellation that needs truth.
Oh Ruth Bader Ginsburg , you are so dearly missed.
It is now up to us to put our collars on and walk into the future with the
opera whispering in our ear like a ferocious future and a crescendo.
It is now up to us to sing your memory home.

Ellyn Maybe, Southern California based poet, United States Artist nominee 2012, is the author of numerous books and widely anthologized. She has a critically acclaimed album, Rodeo for the Sheepish (Hen House Studios). Her latest poetry/music project is called ellyn & robbie. Their album, Skywriting with Glitter, has also received high praise. She also has forthcoming collaborative poetry projects with Joshua Corwin including Ghosts Sing into the World’s Ear (Ghost Accordion series 1st Wave, Mystic Boxing Commission)

Eric N. Peterson is from Atlanta, Ga. He’s been drawing cartoons all his life. He leans towards the absurd, imaginative, and the surreal, as that’s where all the flavor is.