Doug Roy, Frogus II, Cut Paper
“My Other Niece”
Twenty-million light years
In the night sky the Pinwheel Galaxy
Each child comes into the garden,
The bees busy among the flowers
It is a child’s hour to be alive again
Having risen from the dead at the lazy
Hour in the afternoon on the twelfth day
Of the fourth month since the eldest child
Departed with the old man in the rickety wagon.
They have regained their innocence
Taken from them on a holy night
Or a sad night or a flat, windless day,
Regained it to walk among flowers,
And among them my other niece
Who died alone, bleeding, filling the sofa
And the clock clicks 1:15 a.m.
The clock then moving on to the rest
Of what the world would reveal
She has regained her innocence,
Having bled out spontaneously
Alone, husband, a road builder, asleep
In the bedroom, unaware till morning
He, holding on to his own religion,
He, a religious man of conviction,
He, having held her hand one last time.
She, an alcoholic, but still tall and strong,
Still radiant, not one of the decrepit destitute
Drinkers of cheap wine, no she was robust
Even at the end, which surprised all
And she walked straight to the profusion
Of flowers in the garden and saw the children
And joined the children, having left the world
Of strife and disappointment, partial for her,
As she did have her victories, her husband
And home and good looks.
_____________
Zeke Sanchez