We will label it kidney failure or lung disease,
but feel the swelling notion that he
is not leaving us, but joining her--
whose ashes answer his prayers at night from the bedside table where he props his cane,
who framed the corner of his lips with the word “happy,”
who gently takes the paintbrush and colors him home.
He raged with war,
he created love.
He is ripe for heaven.
Can you see it?
Kara Knickerbocker is a poet and writer from Saegertown, Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. in English from Westminster College in 2012. Her poetry and essays have been published or are forthcoming in print and online publications including: The Blue Route, Scrawl, Construction, Longridge Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Pittsburgh City Paper, Thought Catalog, Avatar Review, and the anthology Voices from the Attic Vol XXII, among others. Her poetry collection From This Side of the Sun won first place at the 2016 Sigma Tau Delta International English Convention. She lives in Pittsburgh where she works at Carnegie Mellon University and writes with Carlow University's Madwomen in the Attic.
