The past tense is
the brutal rupture from
the present.
That defining break
which stops something
from existing in the same way again.
The past tense is admitting that
something happened..
.
The past tense is asking
"Was this your sister?"
Now whether that is a friend
passing a photo frame
or the coroner in the morgue
those words still ring out
in the definitive past tense.
That was saying she no longer exists.
.
The past tense is getting a phone call at
3 in the morning saying your sister
was
in a car accident.
The past tense is getting to the hospital
at 11 after traveling through the early morning
to hear some doctor in a white coat tell me she
did not
make it through the night.
The past tense is hearing my mother
saying that she
was
a beautiful girl.
That she was my sister.
.
I was the one who identified the body.
Rachel. Her hair was as red
as the day she was born.
Her freckles were as wild
and frantic as ever.
Her lips were pale as
snow and I'm sure she
was just as cold to touch.
.
The past tense is the radical
break with the present.
It is the admitting that
she was beautiful.
It has been a year now
but still I can hear that phone ring.
To have to walk out into that white hall,
and break down on my knees as
she was dead.
The past tense is the radical
break with the present.
The past tense is
her funeral.
her death.
.
Her life.
Points: 10
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