By Rachel Spilecki • Lewiston High School

One dried up carnation

Laying on the desk

Where my homework is done

Flattened accidentally while

Dehydrating

Now lopsided

This flower meant

So much to me

So many sad memories

Linked

The hectic drive to New York

Staying at a hotel

Being with family

Having… fun

But there was something heavy

Weighing on our hearts

Getting to the beautiful house

Where kitten used to play

And dogs trotted

Now kittens are gone

Were gotten rid of

Because their innocent litter box created

Scabs

On her brain

Complicating everything

Speeding up the process

Dogs being taken care of

By someone else

To take some of the weight

Off of her husband’s shoulders

The wake

The first trial

Seeing a body

That was not her

Seeing a life

Before our time

That wasn’t known

By some

Us

Feeling distantly related

To her

Had to be strong

For my cousins

Since I am the oldest

The Funeral

The last farewell

Surround by strangers

Mourning the loss

Of a dear one

One who we had loved

Only because of a late joining

A marriage

During the last years of her life

The flowers

Given away at the door

Church couldn’t use them

Lent forbade it

So the nieces handed them out

But not us

Her blood nieces

The pinkish-brown dead flower

Carried safely from

New York to Maine

Tried to be kept alive

With no luck

Just like its original

Owner