The Woman I Kept to Myself by Julia Alvarez

Author:Julia Alvarez
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2003-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

DEATH DAYS

It used to be we marked time with birthdays:

huge childhood parties with wedding-size cakes

to celebrate that season’s crop of cousins,

all of us dressed in costumes from countries

my grandparents had recently visited:

Mexican sombreros and toreador pants,

embroidered peasant blouses for the girls,

Dutch clogs and dirndled dresses with white caps,

silk saris, togas, grass skirts, Chinese thongs,

as if to meet the future in disguise.

But now it’s death that singles out a date.

May 30th, my grandfather set out,

nine years after my grandmother who died

September 5th—I like to think of them

as on another one of their long trips.

A conscientious colleague died June 3rd,

right after turning in her final grades.

May 24th, March 4th—the dates are piling up.

My dressy black dress never gathers dust

with old silk saris, linen caps, Dutch clogs.

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