Learning Grief by Kaiser Haq A study in contrast: at eight I was dragged from bed To hand a glass of water To grandmother in deathbed. She drank I went back to sleep And when I woke up It was so the stillness And stifled sobs Of mourning. Relations arrived And religious professionals Droning from scriptures As essence smoke rose In fragrant coils Father was red-eyed Withdrawn a sight To be commented on By my neighborhood friends His mother has died, they said, Clucking in sympathy I remember feeling Nothing except that the whole Scene was novel. The clock Of my life did not stop As I did when I was ten And a sister arrived like a silver Of moonlight erased Almost at once by a dark mop Of cloud: winter pneumonia. Mother’s gloom was long As the night, and at school Day after tasteless day Under the austere miniature Of the crucifixion I went through lesions and exercises, Sombre as any penitent monk. Watching friends at play, At thei...
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