Burials

Stretchers and body bags
Men in fire suits
stepping over the debris
their load light, macabre

Images charred into my psyche –
four cousins dead
the eldest ten
It was 1968

Now, we stand at an adjacent grave
the children’s headstone an open book –
frozen in time – so many chapters unwritten-
the grief has not lessened

We’ve gathered to bury an uncle
youngest of ten –
only one remains –
the children’s father

At 95, he chokes on words
points to his children in the ground –
Those are my kids! he croaks
although we didn’t need the reminder

Tragedy lingers in the heart
in the mind
in the collective consciousness

I turn on the news –
tiny body bags
on stretchers
carefully removed
from the debris

Tragedy: a forever thread
in the tapestry of life.

(Image my own)



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VJ

Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

51 thoughts on “Burials”

  7. The edge of despair is one I know well. 2 babies, taken from my womb, 1990, 1992. No words can ever begin to describe the loss of a child.

    One never gets over it, but my consolation and hope in a merciful God helps me through it.

    “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.” Ps 27:13

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    1. Thanks Julie. Billy, the oldest, was just two weeks younger than me and every time my Aunt and Uncle see me they remember it and wonder where he would be now.

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  14. You captured the lingering pain that comes with death and inexplicable tragedies. We store it somewhere in our hearts and minds, but it never truly leaves.

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    1. It makes me think of parents everywhere, losing children to war or school shootings – unnecessary and deeply rooted pain.

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      3. Resumes mucho la historia. Supongo que es bueno contar…, aunque es necesario poner un punto y final o un punto y hasta otro momento. Duelos por doquier; la retina y los sentidos tienen memoria, y no precisamente artificial.

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