“Sister Lament”

 

c. 2025 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(7-25)

 

Sister has cancer

There is no cure, only a chemical delay

A potion of poison dispensed with a plan

Wishing this affliction away

While doctors dabble and debate

It makes me nod out at my dinner plate

I don’t understand

 

She lives a careful life

Reading holy scriptures every day

Faithful to her marriage vows

Kneeling at the bedside to pray

And now the sentence of an ending comes clean

Bringing the finality of a wicked dream

I don’t understand

 

The end of unraveled meanings

The end of a one-act play

Now the stage falls silent and dark

Shakespeare has no more to say

No curse spoken from my trembling lips

Will aid the cause of restoring bliss

I don’t understand

 

The touch of fate

Is dispensed without favor

Apparently, to anyone

Foe, friend, or neighbor

Therefore, I ponder that the striker spins

Knocking asunder, the bowling pins

I don’t understand

 

A newscast through family lines

Spread like gospel truths

It comes hard, between the eyes

Superman slipping in his phone booth

I should have plugged my ears

But the balance would be delivered in arrears

I don’t understand

 

It makes me shy with memories

Of others stuck down, cold

Before the joy of living

Before the chance to grow old

This gamble of a board game twist

Leaves me feeling quite bruised and pissed

I don’t understand

 

She came when I was barely two

A new addition to the household

I marveled at her infant form

Meek where I was bold

Now, the pastor says to look on high

And the pessimist, ‘Curse God and die’

I don’t understand

 

Faith alone is mysterious

And the universe, a trick

To comprehend the flesh is great

To heal the weak, and sick

But at the precipice, I stand erect

Contemplating what I cannot protect

I don’t understand

 

A church hymn repeated

A lilting verse, given to seal

What commemorates the judgment

Of an innocent soul, without appeal

Goodbyes echo into the haze

As we yearn for yonder, olden days

I don’t understand

 

Forgive me, heavenly one

When I doubt and dare

To wander through the tales of yore

A gravestone maze, unfair

I won’t turn on my maker yet

But this is a time not to forget

I don’t understand

 

Once I watched a soul, beloved

Take his last breath, bravely

It shook me in the moment

And gave a glimpse of eternity

I could never wash away that mark

Of a fading, feeble, electric spark

I don’t understand

 

Poets speak of things unknown

To guide our steps, unsure

But each rut of the wagon wheel

Is another path to a cure

How odd to think that with these gifts

We still lose those who have crossed the rift

I don’t understand

 

Maybe when I am chosen

The knowledge of truth will come

But until that hour arrives

I will linger, deaf and dumb

One more click on a counter in a cave

The reaper swinging his scythe, amazed

I don’t understand

 

Night is the balm I seek

A closing of the book

A free swim away from cares

Liberty from the fish hook

If I never return to this world

Perhaps there’ll be a new banner unfurled

Then, I will understand