Good news: all the files I thought were deleted (including my precious Word docs) are intact! I restarted my computer, and everything just appeared. Although I wasn't terribly heartbroken about losing them all, I was pleasantly surprised to have recovered them.
To Angus
Last month, my grandfather turned ninety-four years old
from his mahogany casket engulfed in the earth.
I was not there to wish him a happy birthday
but his neighbors, a war vet and a teenage boy with auburn
hair, told him for me through rearranged atoms and
eerie autumn breezes.
I loathe that cemetery
because it has swallowed my ancestors, washed them
down with rain and frost, regurgitated them as weeds
and it lingers close by to take more, even me.
I am more than chiseled limestone and marble.
I am more than artificial flowers on the fourth of July.
More than dirt and bones and the nearby tree
reeking of cat urine.
We are all more than death.
My grandfather--he a was jovial, beer-bellied fisherman
with Moby Dick tales that
I was never able to hear.
i'm glad you got it all back.
ReplyDeletethis must be a sign. we need to get this shit in print. :)