Ash
Wednesday and Valentine’s Day 2018
by Norbert Krapf
by Norbert Krapf
Not
long after we received ashes
on
our foreheads, I learned from
my
brother that our sister Mary
passed
into spirit in her sleep last night.
No
more sister suffering, no more
blood
sister left in this world of flesh,
but
a beautiful spirit remains always
a
spirit beautiful in any and every world.
I
was to see you in less than a week,
but
now Mary I will see you always
alive,
giving others hope and courage,
wanting
always to lift them toward
the
best they can become, believing
in
what they would give to us. You gave
us
eyes to see gifts hiding in ourselves.
To
Come Knockin’ at Your Door?
by Norbert Krapf
by Norbert Krapf
Sister,
every year you wrote to your
brother
who cut off from all of us
and
our children thirteen years ago
without
telling us where he went
or
why. You wanted to stay in touch.
Your
husband dug up his address.
Sister,
somebody hurt brother bad.
I
know it was a priest about whom
a
cousin sent me word that late in his
life
he insisted he wasn’t likely to go
to
heaven because he had done “terrible
things.”
I know well what they were.
He
did them to brother and he did them
to
me. It’s nothing you ever did to your
brother
that kept him away so silent.
He
never answered your letters or mine.
You
told me late in your too short life
that
you kept hoping he would one day
come
knock on your door. I almost begged
him
to knock knock on your door. As far as
I
know, he did not, even though he was
fond
of you. Sister, any brother who
cannot
come knocking on your door
is
hurt worse than we can ever know.
Some
doors remain always open.
Like
yours. He didn’t even have to
knock.
Your heart was always open.
Big
Soul Sister
by Norbert Krapf
by Norbert Krapf
When I told a woman writer friend
about
your rheumatoid arthritis
leading
to a related type of leukemia,
Mary,
but pointed out that your spirit
remained
positive and you retained
an
eye for the good in others,
she
replied: “Sounds like your sister
had
a body difficult to live in
but
a big soul full of light.”
Former
Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert
Krapf
is the author of eleven poetry collections and the forthcoming
Cheerios in Tuscany: Poems by
and for a First-Time Grandpa.
He is the winner of a Glick Indiana Author Award, a Creative Renewal
Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and he collaborates
with bluesman Gordon Bonham. He has a poem in stained glass at the
Indianapolis International Airport and his poems have been read on
The Writer's Almanac.
More: www.krapfpoetry.com.