On Losing Their Father by Sue Goyette - Room Magazine
On Losing Their Father by Sue Goyette - Room Magazine
On Losing Their Father by Sue Goyette - Room Magazine
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
A woman moves against the tide at the funeral home<br />
while we’re being offered strawberries and tea. She approaches us<br />
as if we are without rock, our shore, sandy. Her name is Susan.<br />
She speaks as if we are planetary, giving off such a light<br />
that she is bathed in its blessing. She looks at my children<br />
as if they are children. I found your father, she tells them. I was the one<br />
who found him. Suddenly, they do not know what to do with strawberries.<br />
Suddenly strawberries are something to be cared for, tended.<br />
Nurtured. Should they sit down with the strawberries, they wonder.<br />
Should they make a small bed for these berries and turn off the lights.<br />
They are such small children to be making these decisions.<br />
They are such small<br />
children that when she breathes the breath<br />
she has been holding for them,<br />
they feel him with such force,<br />
they are blown close to sinking.