Muddied Bloodied Memories

Why do you haunt me dear cousin of mine I desperate to leave all this sorrow behind! But how can I wash from my young memory Or chisel your face from our family tree? The laughter and giggles and joys at the park Mama in the kitchen and songs of the lark The rain on the rooftop like pattering feet Like toddling cousins in childhood sweet. The mists off the river moistened each face Niagara's cool waters in our childhood place My soul screams in agony "Oh....what have you done?" The mud pies long dried in the afternoon sun But muddied in rains of those tears that we cried When our family was torn to no longer abide And the quest for the West pulled us children apart, You were pulled away, and it shattered your heart. But remember the rays of those once sunny days? Mud pies on the riverbank memory stays. But those memories muddied and bloodied for years for when you took your life Left us drowning in tears.