There is a slight brown like singed eyebrows declaring that sunshine occurred.
A slight change in elevation over Grandma Dudie’s body.
What remains…
In her ark.chest.coffin
The full height of myself between the corpse and the surface
The earth pushed up and made a slight crack in the corner of the marble
Beloved Wife and Mother
Esther M. Roswall
1918 1982
The Salvation Army crest sits between the years looking like a sun spreading her skirt out into a curtsy with an obnoxious crown
That old Victorian symbol standing between Esther’s birth and death where her life should be…
The shadows once belonging to her daughter and granddaughter float ethereally to the right as to not disturb the Sun in her pompous glory
Yet darkening grandpa’s bloodiron gravemarker
Mauritz W. Roswall
U.S. Army
World War II
July 13, 1911 June 19, 1995
Exact dates with a simple cross raised between
Stark. Metallic. Cold.
Ingeting.
Floating above the soft cheek the heavy hand,
Returning into adomah
Powerless to comfort, empowered to shush….
'Funnel' by Vangie R.
What great push edged Agda off of the great appendage of Northern Europe: The sterile soil yielding only bland potatoes nudging her to risk crossing the sea från
Sverige to Chicago, to Minnesota to the
logging/fishing outpost trying to be a city called Seattle
Ever the outsider
Marrying Gus nee coalmines now a halibutman
Leaving the ministry
birthing 5
Losing golden curled Ruthie
Losing Sverige
Gaining America?
Your baby girl
Nursed you
Until…
Esther overcoming the darkness with voice, trumpet, accordion, guitar
American yet trapped between
Mama’s passing, you were finally able to live into your vocation of ministry
Mauritz duly impressed, loving you until
Condemning you to a separate, arctic bed
Serve him, everything must be snäll as he gives
your love rations to the church secretary
Little Lulu
“little adult”
Your best friend
your baby girl
Its poured into
Her
muted…
Carol with horn and piano and choir and horned rimmed cat eye glasses
Enduring the robotic sterility of what makes Sweden famous
No sibling, alone, move from place to place to place
Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Coos Bay, Eureka
Will your only friend be Mama?
What you want to be when you grow up is the same as your Mama and mormor…
Given up to marry a hick logger
Move to a trailer park and
daddy puts his hat on and leaves
Manic Depressive
Rage carries on hidden behind flimsy walls
A comfort found….
Evangeline brings good news to take your pain away.
Gritted teeth and a slap, followed by tight maternal embrace and dubbed
“a fragile little flower”
I am your little comfort
Forever Exodus, getting the hell out of Forks
Thirsting for something else than these generations
of starved women feeding on their young
Mothering their mother
Babying their husband
Drains from above into …
And I
have
no…
'Benediction of the Artistic Impulse' by Vangie R.
A gift descending
A tongue
Of fire
Resting as a hand of blessing
May gasoline like oil pour inconveniently
Over you
And light the match
Explode into fire
May your skin melt off like Hiroshima
This cursèd blessing will swallow us into something…
This glorious agony!
Because we know that you’ve gotta lose your life to gain it.
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