Testing Times Lament

Sometimes the tests are easy:
an extra trip to town
to pick up oranges, seltzer and Zicam
for my sick spouse;

this nagging toothache,
the new filling fell out
making eating effortful.

Some are numbing:
Wednesday, Kim didn't show up for book club.
Was she combing her hair,
thinking of The Cat's Table
when her heart burst?

Some are downright daunting:
Mat's memorial
at the old Waldorf school
where Khay studied, played, loved;
driving the old car pool route,
walking the familiar tiled halls,
standing on the wood floor
in the eighth grade room,
sitting in the crowded auditorium
to hear of Mat's life,
the fifth boy from this small community
to die young.

a poem for the third Sunday in Lent

by Rachel Horsley