shot glass
title
Issue # 1 March 2010
"... brevity is the soul of wit ..."
- William Shakespeare

Karen Neuberg


 

Years Now, She's Dead

Cold storage keeping my heart. Packed
in dry sobs, silent in plaid. Her tacit
instructions were hewn from a forest of trying.

Too late, my fondness for her imperfection
which she displayed descending out of here.
Her life into the chipping pile, decomposing.

What I miss most differs. Eyes when they
let me in. First note of her voice searching
me out. Her strength of will to keep going.

I want there to be a story to hold that
is less packed, less under the pile of clutter
I am fading into. Soon I will be flattened

into the same dust. My photo, too, among
those in the old box, some child lifting me out,
some child pointing to me, asking, Who's that?