Lost Voices
Since her stroke
we had been losing parts of Mother,
like air leaked out of a balloon
too heavy to rise again.
She sat in silence
when one morning
there was no more of her.
Dad spent his days
cutting up family photos
to make paperweights,
never answered the door,
microwaved his hearing aids,
collapsed in front of cheering
football crowds on television.
And there was more.
One icy evening
my brother’s car left the highway,
thrust him through trees
into a wilderness no one could reach.
His twin grew ill
too weak to speak our names,
skin yellowed like old newspaper.
Mother once held us together
during dark times when we were little,
filled our rooms with her voice
warm as a soft velvet night.
I half remember its music
when rain rustles leaves
of her favorite sycamore
on early autumn evenings.
Voices: Lost and Found
by Jan Duncan-O’Neal
Table of Contents
Mother’s Voice
The Uncles
Neighborhood Crone
Demise
Hold Me, Pa
Dancing with Bob
Transplant
First Love
Dyslexic
Requiem for a Prodigal Daughter
The Great Sphinx
Lament for a Bookstore
Second Chance
Honeymoons
Introspection
New Enlightenment
Pushcart Nominations
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The Lives You Touch Publications
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