I Never Felt Right

Aunt Rose made coffee
for the two of us
while we waited for
the coroner's release

"You must never again"
she told me severely
"let death find you
without a black dress

"I never felt right
going to Jack's funeral
in a pink dress
the only one I had

"There I was
among his womenfolks
in their grieving black dresses"

The sadness in her voice
sounded as if Uncle Jack
had died last year
instead of 1940

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.