January 30, 2018
The Death You Died

I did it, blood brother; I stole your body from the morgue.

Remember the time you swore you wouldn’t push me down the hill in Dad’s wheelbarrow but you did anyway and I hated you?

I do         as I slump your dead weight into that same rusty cart.

Remember when I had to dissect a cat in anatomy class and my lab partners smiled as they used the blunt side of the scalpel to crack skull plates?

I do         as your formaldehydic body leaves a trail in our slow-going wake.

Remember all of the county fair goldfish we won by tossing ping pong balls into milk jugs and remember how easily they took to floating belly-up in their fish tanks?

I do         and now you’re buried with the best of them in the stony Wisconsin soil behind the house.

Remember when we promised each other poison if our minds went before our bodies did or if our bodies hurt more than the fear of death did?

I do         and I’m angry, angry, angry with you for dying differently and without my consent.

Having lost my sisterhood, whose hand will pull the plug for me when I’m ready?