Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash

Another day spent reaching people from afar

yet the one so near is closed off from me.

How did I get to this place of no family?

Who held it together by the strings that dissolved

the moment you died?

For the family was broken before you left.

Now we are just jagged pieces being swept up

one by one and dumped into the trash bin.

— Nicole Barden 12/25/2020