duplex, for a dead sailor
by Candice M. Kelsey
A eulogy is the convergence of cold water and warm.
It is the Polar Front between here and there.
This low pressure zone a grief from here to despair:
My late father sailed the SSBN Robert E. Lee.
A Lt. Commander, he sailed the Lee into Holy Loch,
A sub base deemed unnecessary after the Cold War.
Cold and deemed warlike, I am base, unnecessary
Watching soldiers carry my father’s coffin, heavy.
Soldiers folding his flag so useless, heavy to carry
Like the sight of my mother folding over again.
Exactly like my mother folding in half, her body
A thousand mile line where polar air meets tropical.
The living meet the dead through a thousand words — air.
A eulogy is the convergence of cold water and warm.
Candice M. Kelsey [she/her] is a writer and educator living in both Los Angeles and Georgia. A finalist for Best Microfiction 2023 and longlisted by Wigleaf's Top 50 Short Fiction in 2024, she is the author of seven books; her latest chapbook POSTCARDS from the MASTHEAD has just been released with boats against the current. She mentors an incarcerated writer through PEN America and reads for The Los Angeles Review. Please find her @Feed_Me_Poetry and https://www.candicemkelseypoet.com/.
