The Sum of Parts
I keep having to count
and recount
How many are we now?
The math equals orphans
like laundry on a line
with no clothespins to hold us
Now I am the oldest
but 3rd in the line
and separated by one
from the other five
Divided by death
times who we miss
with a common denominator
of unsolvable sadness
___________Colleen Redman /Poets United
March 18th, 2018 10:37 am
Family is indeed greater than the sum of its parts… my poem used a laundry metaphor too!
March 18th, 2018 10:57 am
The math of bereavement and loss is incalculable.
March 18th, 2018 11:06 am
A brilliant metaphor! Such great loss as we lose our family….calculations cannot assuage it but bring more reality to it.
March 18th, 2018 11:45 am
such maths are different from say, a household budget, and mortality is not far from the mind. you have written such a great metaphor.
March 18th, 2018 12:19 pm
This poem tugs at my heart. It’s always difficult remembering those who are no longer among us.
March 18th, 2018 12:41 pm
I think this is the kind of math that explains complexity of numbers… sorrow can’t be measured but it does have a weight.
March 18th, 2018 12:44 pm
How I love “orphans / like laundry on a line / with no clothespins to hold us”. In my family, the losses have moved me up to next in line to pass on……yikes!
March 18th, 2018 1:56 pm
Indeed, so painfully difficult, the loss of loved ones.
March 18th, 2018 6:05 pm
Family is so important. Well crafted and put across with feeling.
March 18th, 2018 6:43 pm
I feel the sadness of loss in this poem, Colleen. So hard to lose a sibling, to have to count and recount & no way to change the count.
March 18th, 2018 6:57 pm
Well captured.
We don’t discuss it… but 4 out of 5 of us left in our old age, it does come up in our conversation. The missing one was younger than three of us. Acceptance seems to be the consensus.
Your pieces always seem to find their way into my head and redistributed to my heart : )
ZQ
March 19th, 2018 6:14 am
The arithmetic of evolving families is deep in the heart. As you capture here, logic will never solve it.
March 21st, 2018 10:24 am
How beautiful your thought-provoking write. I would echo Sherry on my most loved and most poignant words (of yours).
My friend calls herself an orphan and I guess I am too – although I don’t feel like one, surrounded by the love of my family as I am.
I don’t want to leave my now well grown-up children, but one day I will…
Anna :o]