How? - Copyright © 1989 John P M Dillon -

How do you tell someone
Your brother has died?
How do you describe the loss inside?
What words can explain your eyes full of pain
And your fear of forgetting
The good times?
Do you share your memories
With friends you don't really know?
Or do you lock your face into the rictus of a smile?
What questions can you ask
That won't burden them too much?
Inside, you know the answers.
But time does not soothe the impatient man
though its healing powers are of legend.
Nor do platitudes appease him,
Though they are voiced with the best of intentions.
Life is for the living who remember the dead.
But how can you live surrounded by death?
How can you share your unhappiness, your regrets
When you hate to intrude on their fun,
Their cheerfulness.
Who do you tell when there's no one to turn to?
And how do you tell them
Your brother is dead?