Cousin Quartet

Cousin Quartet

   Years ago, my mother sang in a quartet
   with her sister Lorraine and their two cousins.
   The Cousin Quartet, it was called.
   I just asked her about it tonight, as she lay dying.

   "The funny thing was," she said,
   "we always stood with our backs to a window.
   And someone was always pouring sand."

   I asked my aunt about these things;
   she shook her head. And so we gather
   evidence for the fading music
   of the mind, the light behind us.
   And someone is always pouring sand.

COPYRIGHT 2006 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning