NO DIRECTIONS
(in memory of my mother Ita)

South of Sorrow
North North West
of Pain

I search for you &...
...lose you
yet again

I calculate
your absence
by the stars

& you are near
though
you are far

I wander through
this Wilderness of Loss
...is this what loving you has cost?

East of Loneliness
West of Grief
...If only for one brief...

... your voice echoes inside my head
... I see you smile & laugh
... pretend that you're not dead

*

I wrote this for my mother but my younger brother Brain asked me to read it at his funeral. I laughed and said I would be long dead before him. But his heartattack at a young age proved otherwise. I read it from the pulpit looking down at his photo on his coffin and couldn't believe I was in this terrible position. To my horror the congregation applauded as if it was a gig!