A Child's Own Death

The child comes bearing its death,

its own death,

padding along in the footie-jammies of its spirit,

quietly and earnestly,

a small, familiar, slightly grubby death,

borne along as it would have borne,

a drawing to show its mother,

looking to us imprecise, scribbled, approximate,

but springing to the child's own perception

crystal clear, in sharp relief,

defined and descriptive,

and uniquely its own.