-Elizabeth Brewster
I remember how my mother
Before she died
Saw birds nesting
In the bottom of the bathtub.
"Cheep, cheep!" she said.
"See their bright eyes."
And she whistled at one
To make him turn his head.
I almost thought
I could see him myself.
My grandmother dressed herself
The morning she died
And walked to the outhouse, singing
"Nearer my God to thee."
My nephew skated to death
On Christmas skates.
His mother told him
To skate close to shore
And he would be safe.
He obeyed her, and drowned.
My teacher threw himself
From the top floor of a department store
Down to the sidewalk
And broke his neck.
The notes for the next day's lecture
On T. S. Eliot
Fell from his head.
My cousin, having survived
Five years of active service
As a wartime pilot,
Smashed into a freight train
With his car and two small children.
I do not know if he was drunk or not.