lullaby for the bereaved

Lullaby for the Bereaved

Your hours of tears won’t let you follow
Those who’ve left you alone.
Tonight your head lies on a pillow,
Not beneath earth and stone.

The dead won’t be returning,
Not for all of your pleas,
Nor for all your candles burning.
Get up off your knees.

J.D. Smith has published two collections, The Hypothetical Landscape (1999) and Settling for Beauty (2005), and in 2007 he was awarded a Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts. His first children's book, The Best Mariachi in the World, was published in bilingual, Spanish and English editions in 2008.

Smith lives near the Southwest Waterfront of Washington, DC with his wife Paula Van Lare and their rescue dog, Roo.