Barbara Paparazzo

NOT KNOWING BETTER

Not knowing better, we hired
a blue canoe and rowed
through reflections of snow-capped
          Himalayas
to a small Hindu temple
where black and white goats played
in the sunshine. We snapped
pictures, sat on sun-warmed rocks
& admired the animals about to be
                    sacrificed, we found out later
& all that gamboling turned inside out
reminding me of that slice
          unexpected, brutal
between my life when you were alive
and my life now.
Two pieces, both dead.

—from Rattle #28, Winter 2007