The Calling

 

What is the name of our death.
Is it really stroke or rope, really fever or falling?

 

I would like to say,
My grandmother died of Lillian.
My grandfather of Anthony.
Anita of herself, and Nell of herself.
Of Daisy, did my dog die. And of blades, the grass.

 

We go forth in the name we lived.

 

I will die of Christina.
I was so called.

 

From Forth A Raven by Christina Davis. Copyright © 2006 by Christina Davis. Reprinted by permission of Alice James Books.