At a child’s party

We sit at the table
Sticky with candy corn remnants,
Melted ice cream, sugary frosting
A child’s party reveals us

Asleep in my arms my son
Warms me as you speak
Protects me from the chill

In whispers you talk of stricken lives
A sister-in-law who cannot speak,
Sent away
A fractured family
We murmur our pity for her
As we ignore our own wordlessness

Our thorny lives
Are not the subject we seek
We evade the ghosts that sit, plain as day
Beside us their breath
Not opaque
Solidly they denounce our divide

The blood and bone that connect us
Cannot heal us
The wounds, bound tightly
No longer seeping and oozing
Merely festering
Our poisoned blood

It repeats, my other sister says,
Think of Dad, silent for fifteen years
His sister merely a shadow in our lives
We repeat

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