Circa Never

Overdue library book
Once was lost but now I owe you
Milk crate on my bicycle
Coming down the road to see you
Paper said your mother died
Didn't say she took her own life
Starved herself to death last year
Sent you to grief without supper
Paper skin and breadcrumb bone
Fingers in the bedsore balm
Latin in the 7th grade
Conjugate the verb: to carry
Bear your mother to her grave
Bear the burden of her memory
Wish I could've held you then
Helped you hide her in the red dirt
Wish I'd done a lot of things
But wishing only summons hurt
Knocked upon an open door
Heard you weeping in the hallway
Mother's gone to ask the Lord
If He thinks her soul's worth saving
Rough drafts of a eulogy
Written in the blackest ink
Circling you like a choir
Chorus of the unexpired
Got my fingers crossed forever
Got my rabbit's foot
A talisman from ancient Rome
But death don't give a damn
Had a dream the other night
Drove you to the cemetery
Dug a ditch with our bare hands
Laid to rest that overdue book
Spine of Dewey decimal
Poems of Edgar Allen Poe
Blackbirds sang in minor chords
Last we ever exchanged words