Note to Thor…

I can’t reconcile-

the last time I saw you at Pinos Pizzeria on no day in particular “Hey, Aunt La,” when we hugged and exchanged pleasantries that always end in our family motto: “I love you.” “I love you, too, Thor.” 

– with the body that lay in the coffin.

How is it you came to be that picture in the corner of the living room, forever peter-panned by the tragic, dramatic colliding of a flying truck and a tree? The revered family member everyone talks about  at gatherings, the son, brother, grandson, nephew  cousin, lover, stranger to new family members, your existence known now through mythologies told and retold with deep love, humour and sorrow? Where is it you have gone, now that you’ve left us? My beliefs say, though you’ve shed your body shell, the essence of you remains. I wish I were a medium, able to sink deep beneath the surface of bodily life and hang with you in the ether-world:

“I love you, Aunt La.” “I love you, too, Thor.”