Apr 2023
GATHERING MOONLIGHT
obscured by clouds
a hidden Orion
listens to your crying
in a well kept garden
a constellation
of flowers
tenderly tended
by your hand
listens to the rain
teaching them
how to grow
row after row
the flowers
cannot begin
to know
of how your
human grief
tries to lose itself
in each of their faces
seeing again
your dead daughter
smile
upon your tears
your hands
mechanically
gathering moonlight
that isn't there
*
After my young sister was killed when a drunk driver crashed into a parked bus my mother entered into an underworld of grief where we would find here at four o'clock in the morning gardening and crying to herself and plucking at the light.
obscured by clouds
a hidden Orion
listens to your crying
in a well kept garden
a constellation
of flowers
tenderly tended
by your hand
listens to the rain
teaching them
how to grow
row after row
the flowers
cannot begin
to know
of how your
human grief
tries to lose itself
in each of their faces
seeing again
your dead daughter
smile
upon your tears
your hands
mechanically
gathering moonlight
that isn't there
*
After my young sister was killed when a drunk driver crashed into a parked bus my mother entered into an underworld of grief where we would find here at four o'clock in the morning gardening and crying to herself and plucking at the light.
