It is nearly impossible
to think of you in the past tense.
Your life is colorfully woven into the fabric of ours.
I know you are gone,
I saw you leave,
but in my memory you are vividly alive,
with your mischievous smile
teasing the corners of your mouth.
Saying “she was…”
doesn’t fit comfortably on my tongue yet
because you left bold strokes upon my life.
I see you “alive” all around me
You live in the impression
you left upon your grandchildren.
Your life is etched in the laugh lines
worn deeply into my father from a lifetime
of joy shared with “the love of his life”.
I see you in the bold brush strokes you left on canvas
and the lives you touched.
I can hear you in the language of my motherhood
and the dialect of my life.
I feel your strength that you wove deep
into the hearts of my brother and I
because you always knew that you would leave us too soon.
Death may have taken you,
but what you left behind
Will echo in our lives
for generations to come.
© Kayla Fioravanti
Upon Goodbye can be found in the book When I was Young I Flew the Sun Like a Kite available in Paperback for $5.99 and on Kindle for 0.99 cents.
My mom Helen “Kelley” Mohs passed away peacefully in her home at 10:25 a.m. on February 9, 2011.
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