Touch: The Journal of Healing
Touch: The Journal of Healing
Parade of the Dead
For J.M.E.
by Alarie Tennille
Another good man lost
to cancer. He joins their line
as the dead – my dead –
parade by. Good-bye,
good-bye, good-bye again.
He smiles just enough to show
his dimples. The others walk slowly,
letting him set the pace. I remember
happier parades, sitting on Daddy’s
shoulders to see. Now tears and time
blur the passing faces, yet I know them
even by their shadows. The details
of departure – AIDS, murder, heart attack –
as clear as when they left me.
The procession shuffles away. Eyes
fixed on the path, the dead give
a slight nod as they pass,
acknowledging
they remember me, too.
© 2013 Alarie Tennille
Alarie Tennille serves on the Emeritus Board of The Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri. Her chapbook, Spiraling into Control, is available from The Lives You Touch Publications. Alarie’s poems have appeared in numerous journals including Margie, Poetry East, English Journal, I-70 Review, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and Southern Women’s Review.
Copyright © 2013
Touch: The Journal of Healing
All rights reserved.