Family Grief

Too many deaths, untimely deaths,
within this family: my infant brother,
Jimmy's preemie for whom Mama
and Aunt Sue bought baby clothes
to fit him for his burial. My youngest,
fourteen years ago almost, then Stephanie,
and Jimmy went to see his son.
Another cousin's stepson, gone too soon.
Aunts and uncles, you expect eventually.
The grandmas and the grandpas, parents,
spouses, these are deaths both sad and
sometimes under tragic circumstances, but
my parents and their siblings have been
dressing up for funerals for over fifty years.
Half a century of grief, and coffins filled
with those too young, their destinies too high for
earthly air, our questions waiting for
another realm, unanswered until then.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2014