The Newly Found Dead Brother's Picture Book

sits on the dining table for now,
too precious yet to store.
Proof of a past — of
mortality.

Such fun in the humid Mexican heat,
the clear waters a blessing.
The intelligent boy
active

after the breakup of his family.
He leaps from his uncle’s
boat into the tepid gulf
waters

where he flies to rescue his dad.
The little-boy bravery is
balm for his father’s
unwinding.

The photos are at once a record
of an escape, a week off from
the turmoil of
change,

and evidence that we all must shift,
as best we can, onto
a platform of
continuance.

We went on to my brother’s end and
my son’s growing to manhood,
and the healing of my
soul.