Overflow

Overflow 4/4/2013

They put the dead in a chiller
So that when you kiss them
Their skin feels like stone
With their spirit gone
And nothing left
But hair, flesh, and bone.

I kissed my mother goodbye
And let them burn her to ashes
Never again to comfort
Her only beloved son.

I stood at the place
Where I used to hide
Knowing that it would be the last time
That I would ever visit
What was never mine to keep.

I packed up my father’s things
And moved him
In with my sister
Saying goodbye to a time
That can never come again.

In a perfect world
No one would ever lose
And no one would ever die
Safely ensconced
Where we would all love,
And be loved, forever.

I have imagined a world in my head
But it’s a world I cannot achieve
Always coming closer by accident
Than anything I did with my hands.

A real new world is coming
But it cannot be born
Until the old makes amends
Purging all its poison
Fresh, clean, and pure.

I shall yet belong again
And I shall yet happily forget
What it meant to feel safe
And what it meant to lose.

All that was
And all that was hoped for
Shall all come back
Ten times ten thousand
Until we fill up
And overflow.