loss (descent)

a loss is a loss

and one loss leads to another

imagined or not

you and I set up a place in our heads for something we could never hold

the question of whether it ever truly existed is irrelevant

you wanted to teach it to play classical guitar

you pulled the instrument down from its storage place in preparation

I sat in front of you and sketched your face on my body

you practiced guitar

I listened

you played the same soothing dissonance you played when your father died

there was no ceremony when your father died only music

you simply sifted the bones from the ashes
brought them home in a box and went back to your guitar

what else could you do

would you have a funeral home tidy things up for you hide the evidence say nice words receive his friends

would you have someone else do your chores

would you open the doors to a big empty parlor to show how few friends he really had

would you have a priest trivialize the meaning of a life

death means nothing in Christianity you told me

and I agreed
religion's answer to death is immortality