Grief Ennobles the Mind

Robert Boates
From:   The afterlife. Toronto: Seraphim Editions. 1998.

Grieff Ennobles the Mind ~ PROUST
Four elements rose
against us in the beginning.
Custody of the children,
Julia's cancer.
My mental illness,
and severe injury.

Our parents were handfuls.
Their provinces spilled over
across our escape.
Housing here was poor.
The landlord owned a Jaguar,
his mother a Cadillac.

You won your daughters.
I stayed at home
during the chemotherapy.
My illness from childhood;
the abuse deranged me.
The person I became
in those spells was killed
in his suicide attempt.

You've seen only omens
since our union on the coast;
you pay endlessly
for your new freedom --
the family we wanted
never born.

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6 | Poem 7 | Poem 8

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