Infants Remembered In Silence (IRIS) - Poems

Tears in My Gravy

By Martha Oskvig

For Lynn

Look at that heaping plateful – mashed potatoes, squash, two slices
of roast, applesauce and lumpless gravy.
A Thanksgiving Day meal on a day in June?
Even when we aren’t celebrating a holiday.
But what is a holiday?
A Holy Day, right?
And what more holy than the day of a loved one’s death.
So, wait, chocolate chip cookies.
Until the smooth applesauce goes down my swollen throat.
It is actually my eyes that are swollen
from trying not to release too many tears.
The lumps are not in the gravy but in my throat
and the tears add more salt to my gravy
before the cup of warm green tea goes down in soothing sips
to ease my sorrow.
Today will yet be a Thanksgiving Day…in God’s time.

(507) 334-4748

support@irisremembers.com