What more can you want (from a life)?
by Carolyn Ristau, Alyssa’s mom

She found her love; he found her.
She’ll always be there within him.
What more can you want?
…except…

she is always in our memory.
I feel closer to her now than ever.
she binds the family together.
what more can you want?
…except…

she wrote her book; we love it.
we have it,
…except
who will publish it? (in the present circumstances).
what audience will read her line of books?
there will be no more books.

She wrote her songs, she sang her songs
We have her CD, her fine guitar, her childhood flute
…except…

…except
she wanted to have children
but she did, she loved the children she taught
except …
she makes no future generations.
Her name ‘Amelia,’
her great grandmother, Amelia, her grandmother, Amelia, her mother, her daughter-to-be,
All those generations of a shared name
end with her.
there will be no granddaughter to play with
no more a daughter to play with,
no sister, no lover, no friend. she touched those she met,
she was special, they all tell me (as though I didn’t know).
she was warm; she was open
how easily one spoke with her and shared life’s joys and woes.
what more can you want of a life?

…except
it was too short.
and she is dead.

poems by mom