what we once carried

Series: 7
Card: 27
Artist: diewiththemostlikes

I could only look at him
on days his eyes didn’t open
and the pools that we swam in
were drained
with the aluminum tins holding his excess

and the things he used to make
dissolved with the rice
in yesterdays tapioca

or ran down his lips
and into a flowered gown
that sunk further under the modest weight
of saliva unworthy of swallow

he’d tell me the glow of the remote
reminded him of mom

and i’d tell him I know
even though the batteries had died
a few years back

he said someday i’d understand
the things he’d buried in the fluorescent lighting

but all I could think about
was how different his face looked
and how tired his hands seemed

from all the digging