She is smiling from chin to brow.
He is jumping on the bedspread in baggy toddler overalls.
He is laughing as if he will never stop.
She is holding his hands as if she will never let go.
His eyes are not sunken with grief.
Her smile has not vanished forever.
She has not hidden in this bedroom for the past six months.
He is not choking on her stale cigarette smoke.
No one has clamped electrodes onto her skull.
No one has tried to shock her out of her sorrow.
She has not lost interest in her son.
He has not lost faith in his mother.
She is still smiling and he has no reason to be afraid.
(Based on a photograph.)
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1
WonderingSoul at http://unattractivenavalgazing.blogspot.com/
Will,
I am immensely moved by this poem. It’s heavy with the grief that can only come from losing a person without death being the thing that makes them go away.
It is one of the most beautiful things I have read in a long time…
x
Posted at June 16, 2010 on 12:06pm.
2
Will at http://willspirit.com
WonderingSoul–
Thank you for appreciating this poem. I’m taking a poetry class this week…
As it happens, my mother did go on to kill herself. But she was lost to me even before she died.
–Will
Posted at June 16, 2010 on 2:04pm.