Kathy

I wrote a poem
For my sister-in-law
And then
Started to question everything
About it

That it had no heart
No real
Let alone deep
Humanity

That it didn’t address mourning
At all well
The reality
The need
The inevitability
Regardless of how we might
Believe we can reason
Things through

Not that reason has no place
But who can figure death
Each time
Or at any time

It’s a surprise
It shouldn’t happen
It always happens
This
Side of Enoch
Anyway

But we who do not walk with God
And are subsumed
At last
Must simply know that death
Is coming
Not as a person
As much as a failure
Of our systems

And it’s an actual person
Each time
Who had a life
Who had preferences
And
Dislikes
And those of us still here
Should feel for them
What we feel

Thinking
Too
Whatever we must think

Feel the loss
The pain of that
Take comfort
In the placement of heaven
After this
Or something next
However it might be described
Or named

Something is on the way
Though maybe
We mortals
Will have to rest a while
First
Our souls to be cared for
In that
Sleep restores
As we’ve known in our daily lives
In mortality
That is
In normalcy

Anyway
I’m sorry she is gone
I shall miss her
It’s not sibling pain
Perhaps
And yet
Bonds by marriage

Still hurts
To have her gone

to Beth about her sister Kathy

C L Couch


Photo by Javier Cañada on Unsplash