Ultrasound: Your Picture

                 —Henry Thomas Clark, 10/7/14

We’ve framed an ultrasound
            of you and Peter

holding hands
            (or almost) in the womb,

your moon-bright arms
            crossed in a black balloon

with week, and weights,
            and heights in millimeters

penciled on the side.
            We say it’s good

that he, at least, was with you
            when you died,

that unlike us
            you’ll never know the why

of being lonely
            or what naked falsehood

feels like in one’s mind.
            You see, it’s false
                                                                                               
to say your death
            was somehow grace. It’s grace

that spared Cain’s life
            and later gave Eve other                                             

sons, despite creation’s
            wastes and faults.

I wish you could have known
            love’s aftertastes.

I wish you’d had a chance
            to hate your brother.