Can The Circle Be Unbroken?

 

Dad died on Christmas Day. 

I held his hand in the nursing home room

and together, we listened to

the Carter Family play.

Then I told him to let go.

And he did. 

It was the most precious thing.

Dad dying 

on Christmas Day. 

Nowheres

(Detail from "Sunrise with Sea Monsters" by J.M.W. Turner)

I lean in to kiss him goodbye 
but I can’t kiss away
the smoke in his eyes 

“You’ve been a good dad,”

I whisper in his ear

both of us now 

on the verge of tears

his confusion 

turning me clear

this demon dementia

unloosing our tension

father

daughter 

the expectation

of sorrow 

all of it crumbling

on a bridge

to nowheres