Elegy

My father passed away on December 22nd, 2005. My sister placed inside the coffin a poem written in my mother's handwriting - in red ink. She had passed away January 7, 2004. I do not think it was my mother's own poem, maybe a Polish or Russian poet. I googled some of the key words, and much to my amazement, while I did not find the poem itself, I did find this poem, by Janina Degutyte, a Lithuanian poet:

ON A SNOWY MIDNIGHT

I left for the snowy midnight
To bow to the earth and the sky.

And in this silver point of space,
Where winds and ages cross,
Snowflakes fall and seconds fall
On my hair, upon my palms.
And they burn like salt,
And fetter the feet
With white unbreakable ropes.
But I shall not flee!
Only in this silver point of space,
Where houses and trees breathe behind my shoulders,
Where snowflakes fall and seconds fall
Upon my palms, into my heart, –
In red letters
I silently write on the snow
One name, one name...

by Janina Deguytyte

...."in red letters"....I lay in the snow that night....remember?
And so I ask: What were the odds of finding this poem,
amid all that exists out there....as if I had written it....."in red letters" ?