Gone the Brother

(I wrote this one for a class assignment, based on "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst.)

An ending, bitter in its coming.

In anger, a brother is abandoned.
Despairing, the brother falls.
How is it so easy to leave,
As if he’d never been here at all?

Sorrow hangs us like a rope.
It pulls, tightens, strangles.
Never relinquishing, uncaring,
Despising the soul that it dangles.

But is there hope in sorrow?
Can we not find grace?
Like sunshine through the clouds, a revelation:
He’s in a better place.

Though gone momentarily from our midst,
And gone the fire, the embers
Still glow gently and warmly:
The summers, still remembered.

We must wonder at how the story must end,
Would the brother still be sent to his grave?
Or could matters have been different?
If only brothers forgave…

Tags: The Scarlet Ibis, James Hurst, poem, forgiveness