2024 NaPM 30 April

[RiverNotch]

If ever he was condemned by his genetics
to suffer from dementia, he broke his face
and died of stress in the overfull
emergency room before we knew.

Instead, there were only the times
when the older sister who'd cared for him
during the war like a mother
was rolled into the crematory furnace

or when right before his end,
after a couple of nights' oscillation
between crying out in pain and cussing out those around him,
he quietly apologized,

that we saw my grandpa so regain
his innocence.

I hate that, to keep the sonnet form (which, quite frankly, is better), I had to exclude:

or when his prodigal daughter, the youngest,
suffered a stroke before the two older,