SAMI FREESE PLEASE

Surprises

When people ask me

how I am doing

or I thank them

for coming by or offering their condolences

I speak in a tiny soft voice

that I do not recognize

 

I spent two days sitting on the couch

and my back was so sore

that the next day I sat on the ground instead

and if felt like a tiny victory

 

When we saw my mom before she was cremated

I did not like to look at her

and my sister and my dad cried

but I just got a headache

like I had been wearing a really tight ponytail

all day long

 

Two days after my Mom died

I found out that she once came in second

in a ship wide beer chugging competition

when I was a baby

when she went on a cruise that my dad had won