Survived By Her Mother

After class you would drag me with protest

to the empty cherry tree

to tend the ground there

once a week respectfully

you would speak to me

of the carrot-headed sister

just me with my feet as solemnly

you would stroke the ground

to tuck her into her

silten sheets some six feet deep

with the lights that passed before you

could afford to mark the ground beneath the cherry tree

i learned to wait in your sheets and seats

and dig my teeth deep into my knees

to dam the creeks above these ruddy cheeks that betray me

now you signed your name across the space beside her

and tend the ground where you will lay apart from everything

but your carrot-headed daughter beneath that cherry tree

eternally