On Verna's Passing

by Nina Serrano

How can one small word grief tell it all.
           —Li Ch'ing-Chao, China 1084 -1155

One grief only hints at others
piled high in the charnel house
splintered bones of dusty dreams
hopes hacked asunder by electric saws or lightening bolts
leaving just a hole in the memory
One grief only hints at others
The soul's scrapes and bruises
scabs and callouses
One grief only hints at others

          November 1995

Introduction | Feather | Her Hair, Always Her Hair | Day of the Dead 1996