Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Such a tiny little box to carry a soul

Two poems by Mark DiFruscio

Mark DiFruscio is a San Diego–based writer and filmmaker.
Mark DiFruscio is a San Diego–based writer and filmmaker.

Remains

  • Such a tiny little box
  • to carry a soul
  • Faux wood
  • with a walnut coat
  • What does it hold?
  • One foot wide
  • and six inches deep,
  • large enough for a person
  • 170 pounds before
  • cremation.
  • A hand-carved Tree of Life,
  • In Loving Memory of inscribed —
  • unscrew, slide out to insert
  • plastic bag of human ash,
  • sculpt a hole
  • in the February frozen soil
  • to let go
  • of all the inflections you gave my name —
  • want, envy, shame, bully-rage —
  • I hold on
  • to a backwards glance
  • at the nightly bedtime game we played
  • how you tested me in the dark of the room
  • we shared, pointed to the logo
  • of every team
  • on our matching NFL sheets
  • until I could name them each
  • for you.

Birthday

  • I lost you two weeks before my birthday
  • before we ever met, my springtime child
  • second chance, to salvage a splinter
  • of the possible self
  • I had hoped to become
  • when I still believed that the world
  • was somehow shaped
  • by how we try to live, and to care
  • for those we love —
  • a father who paints twilight sailboats
  • for his lost favorite son,
  • a mother grown mawkish, twisted bitter
  • by so many of her life’s letdowns —
  • and nothing restores the empty womb,
  • barrenness transgresses winter months
  • drains the green from the leaves, from the trees, from the soil
  • and the cry of a wound
  • defies any formula
  • of words.

Mark DiFruscio is a San Diego–based writer and filmmaker. He earned his MFA in film production from the University of Southern California, where he produced the documentary Dog People. His writing has appeared in Fiction International and pacific REVIEW

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
Mark DiFruscio is a San Diego–based writer and filmmaker.
Mark DiFruscio is a San Diego–based writer and filmmaker.

Remains

  • Such a tiny little box
  • to carry a soul
  • Faux wood
  • with a walnut coat
  • What does it hold?
  • One foot wide
  • and six inches deep,
  • large enough for a person
  • 170 pounds before
  • cremation.
  • A hand-carved Tree of Life,
  • In Loving Memory of inscribed —
  • unscrew, slide out to insert
  • plastic bag of human ash,
  • sculpt a hole
  • in the February frozen soil
  • to let go
  • of all the inflections you gave my name —
  • want, envy, shame, bully-rage —
  • I hold on
  • to a backwards glance
  • at the nightly bedtime game we played
  • how you tested me in the dark of the room
  • we shared, pointed to the logo
  • of every team
  • on our matching NFL sheets
  • until I could name them each
  • for you.

Birthday

  • I lost you two weeks before my birthday
  • before we ever met, my springtime child
  • second chance, to salvage a splinter
  • of the possible self
  • I had hoped to become
  • when I still believed that the world
  • was somehow shaped
  • by how we try to live, and to care
  • for those we love —
  • a father who paints twilight sailboats
  • for his lost favorite son,
  • a mother grown mawkish, twisted bitter
  • by so many of her life’s letdowns —
  • and nothing restores the empty womb,
  • barrenness transgresses winter months
  • drains the green from the leaves, from the trees, from the soil
  • and the cry of a wound
  • defies any formula
  • of words.

Mark DiFruscio is a San Diego–based writer and filmmaker. He earned his MFA in film production from the University of Southern California, where he produced the documentary Dog People. His writing has appeared in Fiction International and pacific REVIEW

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Navy solves San Diego homeless crisis by retiring four locally moored ships

Decommision Accomplished
Next Article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.