The Body Speaks

The body speaks louder
than words, for instance
the mouth set down
in a catenary curve.

The curve of my grandmother
as she sat on the bed weeping
left a deep & permanent depression
in the old double mattress.

A hollow of sorrow for the child
lost to hospital misadventure.
What curve might he have taken?
Evening knows what morning

could never have imagined . . .
he’s still the beloved infant son,
the cold hard green windfall
apple of her eye.