Panels The Shape of a Grave: The Quilt

You hear the names drumming a litany of loss
as you gaze at lives captured on 3 by 6 cloth,
fabric that's shaped like a grave.

You see Tom's tangled roots: Phi Beta Kappa key,
and photographs of his children at the beach,
benediction on a panel that covers a grave.

One reader adds, "Love to my brother Steffan."
They pronounce 10,000 names: mythology woven
in a quilt square made for a grave.

Names of the dead chill as they're read aloud,
those whose lovers and friends have found
relics to sew on a shroud for a grave.

A woman says her lover is a grey-haired judge.
You picture him. When she adds he has Aids, your image
wanes. You see his panel the size of a grave.

Copyright © Linda Goodman Robiner, Cleveland, Ohio.