Keening
When my grandfather died,
His sister, slight with short gray hair,
came into the room at his wake
and said "Is that Jim?"
It surprised me but I didn't know
this was an Irish wake tradition
To say "Who is it that's dead?"
"Why did you depart?"
As the old crone called me
the Irish washer woman
standing silent in the middle of the circle
now keening
at my bedside
Who is it that is there?
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