A poem by Elna Kelley Cooke

PREPARATION

Exactly a week before our beautiful one took flight
I dreamt of a strange bright-colored bird
extending rose branches from it’s tail
We tried to catch a glimpse, racing from pane to pane as it sped by

I painted the creature the next day as the dream was so peculiar,
I told my daughter the dream I did not share the dream with Him

In another dream layer, again with his sister
shopping, I notice above on a book ledge
two mahogany leather volumes gilded A to M & N to Zed

I am undecided whether to buy them for Him
even though I feel they are Alive

I told my daughter the dreams
I did not share the dreams with Him, why Not?

Sacred days pass, letting him go, forgiveness
our family kisses goodbye his tender body
at the Churchyard

Later I enter the mausoleum
awed and then I understand
witnessing a room of shelved gilded volumes
containing ashes of woman and man

I told my daughter the dreams I did not tell Him

Arthur Cooke age 24 was born in Venice, California June 14, 1996.
He died accidentally October 15, 2020 in the City of the Angels
amidst racial and political turmoil and a pandemic.

-Elna Kelley Cooke