marked

I have no wish to
mark this day,
as though your loss was
confined because you
were coffined and
dissolved, beyond view,
all your days lost
and erased.
And so a day needs
to be raised to
resurrect you to
sight?

This is simply a
marker in the sands
of sorrow, a flag
hoisted to an unforgiving
sky. I cannot bear its
sight, and yet I'm the one
who chooses to raise it.
You'd know why.

You'd know why
I've kept it all
under wraps,
staunched the flow
and choked-off the
flood.
And in burying beyond
sight, the pain,
the unremitting
sorrow, I know
I've shown myself
your son.

You've left your mark;
deeper than you ever
knew.


(for Mam)