A Trilogy of Loss

My father, my closest person, died in 2003. The following are a trilogy of poems I wrote to process the loss. The first, “Negotiating with the Unwell” describes my brother and I arriving at our father’s empty house in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he fell ill with his final illness.

“Visiting” describes my father and my life together while he was in rehab in Scottsdale, Arizona, a time when I held hope that maybe he would be well again.

“Omission” was written after my father died, in my first experience of the cruel disillusionment of loss. Thanks for reading.

NEGOTIATING WITH THE UNWELL
Entering the house, I find
his leather gloves on the counter,
the collapsed form of my father’s hands.
I’m taking these, I say
to the brother I love,
his head bowed over
the documents of illness.
I walk to the back of the house,
through the museum of a man
who has suddenly stopped moving,
hide proof of his living in my bag.