“If We Could Dream Back Everything Lost”

—after Ellen Bass

“It’s Mama’s birthday today.
She would be forty-four,”
you tell your grandchildren
on a FaceTime call.
 
“But she died,” says Isaiah
age four.
 
“Yes she died, and we all miss her, 
but we can still remember 
her birthday,” you say.
 
“Who will make the cake?” 
he asks.