know-how

my grief is a know-how 

because i’m too proud, too smart, too good

at everything, to come to terms

with not knowing how to lose you. 

i wear my smarts by the hospital bed

and look up all the time. make sure i 

hold my breath, when you hold yours, 

heart terribly knotted, until you exhale, 

and the panic dissipates (for now).

a pity, indeed! but only 

that for all my talents,

i suppose i still cannot hack grief.

but fret not! (i say to myself)

grief and logic can walk a parallel line,

if i only master (or perhaps mimic)

the traits of an inline skater.

first, i hold my core steady 

then unsteady; i am four flailing limbs

as the road becomes a stranger but

somewhere between brute strength and

desperation i manage to keep from falling.

(yet hardly skilled enough she is to keep the lines from bleeding unto each other)

i am haphazard, then altogether 

obnoxious in proclaiming that 

grief is my know-how

(for knowledge is much easier than practice.)

unanswered

They tell me you’ve been laid to rest and look at me with sadness I am not ready to carry. They tell me you’ve been laid to rest and I do not know what it means.

Who has put my daughter to sleep? Who has taken my child without permission? Who has laid her to forever rest without my permission?

What do you mean?

She is next to my grandmother. How can that be? My grandmother born in 1919.

What do you mean?

How can you be laid to rest when I am fine?

When my legs still work, and every bit of my memory is working to remember you?

What do you mean my daughter is laid to rest? I was born in 1969. At 55 years old I am still here arms intact so tell me now, who ripped her from me?

How could it be? My 1999 baby, I still remember her birth, bloody and painful and wet. Came out looking like she’d already been overfed so how could it be?

I was born in 1969. My baby just barely turned 25 so how could it be?

Who took my little girl away from me?

I can only raise hell now.

Mooncake.

Pruned hands with plum coloured nails,
Folding gentle tides of dough.
The chopsticks pick
A gentle wave, of lotus paste,
Then into the mould it goes.

Out the oven, wrinkled, tender skin holds
A saccharine treat. Gently sliced, it is gifted,
To the sticky palms of kids,
Licking every last remnant
Of sweetness off their lips,

Pruned hands with plum coloured nails
Laughs when I make a mess,
Delicately wraps crumbs in tissue paper,
Tells me I look pretty in my dress.

On this night,
The moon is high and lit,
Her rounded glory tells a story
Of love and harmony.

The high tide rolls in,
The cycle is complete:
A promise that ends
Are too, new beginnings.

On this night, I’ve seen the moon
Come and go in full bloom
So many times since.
Your smile lines etched
In memory. Your love
Newly absent. Mooncakes
Taste too sweet but fail
To compensate, losing you.