What We Still Keep

Three plates wait beside the sink One chair stays against the wall We still know each other’s birthdays We just don’t make every call My brother speaks through short replies My mother changes every subject I keep bringing extra coffee Like small things can still protect us We’re not whole We’re not gone We still carry something on Different rooms Different lives Still your name feels close to mine At Christmas we arrive in pieces Coats and stories from elsewhere Someone laughs before they mean to For a moment we are there I’m angry that it changed us I’m tired of being fair I don’t know how to fix this I just know I still care We’re not whole We’re not gone We still carry something on Different rooms Different lives Still your name feels close to mine I stopped forcing every silence Stopped translating every face Now I leave a little distance And still save you all a place Maybe family is the reaching Even when the shape is changed Not pretending nothing happened Not believing all is lost We’re not whole We’re not gone We still carry something on Different rooms Different lives Still your name feels close to mine