Tuesday, September 27, 2005

My Sister’s Death: Brother

Let the County bury her
is what he said
his youngest sister
not
twenty-
four hours
dead

he said:
let the County
bury her


and turned
his head.

He
turned
his
head

and
turned
his
head.

-Esther Altshul Helfgott

(the poem above
is)

Today's
found wri-
ting
from Jan 1, 2005
on a sliver
of yellow-
lined
note-
pad
while
or
ga-
niz
ing
piles of pa-
pers
in my study

what
will
i
find
tomorrow?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess this is the place for the prophets: "As you sow, so shall you reap."
Puah

Anonymous said...

I want to add that I was thinking of the brother, who I guess hasn't learned yet that such mean-spiritedness ... will some day come back to haunt him; i.e., he will regret it. We can't help our own thoughts or unthinking speech, but when we speak to somebody else about somebody else that way, I think we'll remember later and for whatever reason feel very guilty at the least, deeply sorry at the most - when the latter happens we want to try to do something to make it "better" if we can, although of course it's too late for his dead sister ... What old rivalries and pain come up from family ties and un-tyings!I am certainly still working on mine.

Puah

Peter said...

Wow. Just wow.