I, Me and Other
Poetry by Gill Schwartz

GERT'S ENTOMBMENT
For Penny

Her remnant body was before me
— ultimate statement of fact —
all the long journey from Camp Lake
to Weinsteins in Skokie.

Past the pro rabbis offering pat condolences,
to the casket that held her stillness,
family pictures over her heart,
a deck of cards in her hand.

My long history of dramatic fantasies
about this moment didn't come up at all.
Instead, I kindly prayed for her.
As I did, her soul appeared and spoke to mine.

The Gert that had happened to her was discarded.
Her soul alone was there to touch mine.
Beyond my grasp, but in that instant our history
was known in a totally other way.

That lucidity seared the roots of our discord.
Remorse and grief released into recognition.
Through this resonance, she mirrored for me
the discernment between personality and soul I battle
with.

Your eulogy said so much about Gert's true self,
it confirmed my vision, the release and forgiveness.
The prayer from Rumi set it all to devotional music.
Then, steel encased, they sealed her husk up in a wall.

Night. Back on my porch in Camp Lake. Black starry sky.
In solitude and quiet, all this churns and flows,
finds its rightful place in this mystery that is me.
The full moon rises, crimson, squeezed from the cosmic
womb.

 

 

Copyright Nathaniel Schwartz 2003   www.WisdomVisions.com