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Column 067

Family Reunion

Intro by Ted Kooser
07.12.2006

One in a series of ele­gies by New York City poet Cather­ine Bar­nett, this poem describes the first gath­er­ing after death has shak­en a fam­i­ly to its core. The father tries to help his grown daugh­ter for­get for a moment that, a year ear­li­er, her own two daugh­ters were killed, that she is now alone. He’s heart­sick, real­iz­ing that drink­ing can only momen­tar­i­ly ease her pain, a pain and love that takes hold of the entire fam­i­ly. The chil­dren who join her in the field are silent guardians.

Family Reunion

My father scolded us all for refusing his liquor.
He kept buying tequila, and steak for the grill,
until finally we joined him, making margaritas,
cutting the fat off the bone.

When he saw how we drank, my sister
shredding the black labels into her glass
while his remaining grandchildren
dragged their thin bunk bed mattresses

first out to the lawn to play
then farther up the field to sleep next to her,
I think it was then he changed,
something in him died. He's gentler now,

quiet, losing weight though every night
he eats the same ice cream he always ate
only now he's not drinking,
he doesn't fall asleep with the spoon in his hand,

he waits for my mother to come lie down with him.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted from Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced, Alice James Books, 2004, by permission of the author. Copyright © 2004 by Catherine Barnett. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.