I remember it all even the hairs
Poking through your wrappings like sidewalk grass
A false sign of life in a barren world
Your eyes too glazed open but unseeing
You called me my sister's name then sputtered
I heard you in the pew today ragged
Breathing inspiring guilt–soaked disgust
The windows brightly abstract, stained glass shapes
Absent of anything just rectangles
Empty it is always where I find not
You but the unfilled space you left behind
In your haste you didn't even have time
To put dirt on after the hurrying
You laid in the freezer till you were burned
Your uneaten chocolate offering
She said to me it would just be a waste
You were lost like the salmon that never
Made it back upstream, feeling more missing
Than someone dead, that I could still send you
A card but even then I wouldn't know
Where to send it, if it's a box or jar

—

This Pascha night the black dog–ran beach sits
Empty miracle of the sands scattered
But not spread the transubstantiation
Windblown and forbidden like your body
Irradiated waiting in its fridge
Lonely I try but am not taken in
Disbelief make me a communicant