black ants in the kitchen
I didn’t go to dinner
stayed home instead
wiping down cabinets
and counters with vinegar
dropped a bottle
full of water, cap loose.
mopped the floor
dropped said bottle
quarter full, cap on tight
on my foot
spent late hours , wee hours
with an inconsolable pup
this is not poetry
this is life
one, two, three
slices off a carrot
Her favorite, carrots
car crashes, lost children
empty cutting board
split seconds…
I slept askew, akimbo
in a shirt tangled, woke
to a cold nose snuggled in
to the side of my neck
solidly sleeping after
terror unseen invaded
‘twas a night spent
climbing walls
most days, the past is the past
but there are pieces of me
bits that were………..sweet
I try to recall, try to reach past
gray eyes once were green
past bones cold from damp
to recall
other things press through
Sister passed at fifty, burnt to ash
interred atop Brother who left at thirty …five?
his casket baby-blue: did Daddy choose that?
or his then wife?
flowers of purple dark and light
his favorite color, Iris, reminiscent
of when we all dwelt in a single place
I chose through exhaustion
in our house, the youngest
was the Forgotten, not the spoiled
the ever Forgiving, the One
left behind, the One who calls
the One to call, the One
who sits with death and buries bodies