You Were the First Women I Saw Die
I remember adjusting your
old fake
dirty teeth,
after cleaning them (of course).
Just like I promised that women.
your daughter?
She was very demanding, but
you should have seen the way she wept,
and told you you’d be home soon.

I’ve never heard a wail like that
and the way she begged,
“There must be something you can do”

Then sand through sifter…
You were gone.
beauty
peace
evolved throughout your room,
folding on itself like smoke,
so beautiful when pierced by light.

later,
I sat outside, weeping.
For you or your daughter?
The buzzing orange light above,
the only interruption
in the white snow’s perfect muffled silence.

You were my first, did you know that?
To see you die became my passage
all of us must take.