1. Someone missing from group
I would put you – there –
in the plastic chair at the bedside
where your warm voice would marvel
at her tiny hands
her heart’s insistent beat.
2. Wrong composition of group
All that day I wished you nearer –
your body a match I wanted to light
I watched your paint-stained fingers
work the corkscrew, swirl
dark red wine into a thin glass.
3. Group too far away
There they are, my family –
fading like a hymn’s last refrain
while dust motes speckle down shafts of light.
As I see them back away, I
don’t know whether to wave, or follow.