For my friend who lost her daughter
If You Say It Right, It Helps the Heart to Bear It
by Mary Oliver
The comforts
of language
are true
and deep;
in a cemetery,
in the South,
so many stones
and so many
so small.
Sometimes
three or four
in a row.
In this instance:
Eliza May,
Oceola,
Joseph.
Can you imagine
the condition
of the heart
of a mother
or a father
watching these plantings?
I cannot.
But I try.
“God taketh
his young lambs home”
is carved there.
A few words
like water
on a stone.
Cool and beautiful
like water on a stone.