Your colostrum tears melted through the yews

(on the sirens breath evening breeze)

 

I picked my way through the orchard (sliding on the rotting downfall)

You were kneeling where the cats were buried, by the verdi-gris whisper of a pond

 

It shocked me to see my mother clawing at the mound, tears softening the dirt where

(Ralph – 14 y/o – natural causes) lay crumbled and forgotten

 

I knelt across from you, next to an ancient decorative grass bought for

(Jasper – 3 y/o – pecked to death by blackbirds)

 

You looked at me then, as I scraped that ghastly peach flesh from my moccasin

Told me you had never (loved my father) but felt trapped

(as opal tears fell)

 

 you laughed at me and told me you didn’t even know

 (who I was anymore)

                                                                                             (who you were anymore)

 

I led you back to the house and made you some tea, as I would for evermore.