Infants Remembered In Silence (IRIS) - Quotes

The Tenth of July

Written by a mother 14 years post-death. Her son died of SIDS.

It was so many years ago when you left us.

Why you died
No longer matters
But the when remains
And serves, one more time, as a memorial
to remembering.

Today is very like that day long past
Clear and cool and out of season
For the midst of summer.
It stirs the memory so carefully submerged
until today.

My mind does not mourn yesterday.
It mourns today.
The images that pass before my eyes
Do not recall the infant son
But see you running through my house
A teenage child in search of food and gym
shoes and maybe me.

I do not mourn you for what you were
But for what can’t be
The unfinished life we didn’t share.
The briefness of that life
Has reached this day and makes me pause
and know
I miss you.

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