Survived by Her Mother Songtext
von Parenthetical Girls

After class
You would drag me
With protest
To the empty
Cherry tree
To tend the ground there
Once a week
Respectfully

You would speak to me
Of the carrot headed sister just
Beneath my feet
As solemnly you would
Stroke the ground
To tuck her in to her
Silken sheets some six feet deep


With the months
That passed before you
Could afford
To mark the ground beneath the
Cherry tree
I learned to wait in your
Sheepskin seats
And dig my teeth deep
Into my knees to dam the creek above these
Ruddy cheeks that betray me

Now you
Signed your name
Across the space beside her and
Tend the ground
Where you will lay apart from
Everything
But your carrot headed daughter
Beneath that cherry tree
Eternally