the moment he turned
and walked away
our world became peckinpah
i can no longer discern
whose blood
my hands are weeping over
Tag: Mourning
Categories
dickens
Christmastime
finds
all of us
pleading with ghosts
Categories
under catalpa trees
no death
represents a single loss
it is a lifetime of little ones
i didn’t just lose my father
i lost his voice
his cologne
him beaming as i accepted my diploma
the father daughter dance at my wedding
him teaching my sons to fish
family reunions under catalpa trees
but i remember the way he laughed
it was left behind in his grandsons eyes
and in
their gleeful bellies
his joy rising from the deep
it is simply
my favorite mercy
as a mortician
the soft spoken woman in the black suit
i learned to counsel grieving families
all of whom had greatly differing needs
to the religious and overwrought
it took little more than reminding them
their loved one was now with god
to offer them consolation
but for the nonbelievers
i couldn’t just defer
to an intangible parent in the sky
i had to mean it
i had to know it
i had to give them something valid
looking into their eyes unwavering i would say,
“He will never again feel pain of any kind. Your peace begins there.”
it was true
it was fact
it was relevant
even for a baby who would never cry
they could touch the cold tranquility
smell the flowers surrounding the casket
knowing their dearly departed
had gone back to the stars
i remember these things
and i wonder how i’m still alive