Case Study
We were ravaged by our loss, our child.
In the shower, slightly past midnight,
after I’d covered the length & width of her back with suds,
she started crying. Then, I started crying.
The grief we could no longer cradle, a house sparrow’s song,
poured from us into a bundle of steam.
Our slumped network of nerves & muscle convulsed
while we bawled.
We stood in limbo, beyond time,
a faint gray comma
between us & the planet rotating beside
our flesh. The shower tiles drank us in,
their unblinking, marble eyes absorbed
what becomes of two poisoned creatures
when their future, each sage green branch of it, has died back.
Notes:
“Case Study” is from Greater Ghost (Four Way Books, 2024). © 2024 by Christian J. Collier. Reprinted with permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved.
Source: Poetry (September 2024)