Survivor
When his father died
he kept the ashes
in a gold foil covered
box on a shelf in
the bedroom still
used by his widowed
mother and when she
died her ashes were
kept in a similar
cardboard container
on the same shelf in
the same bedroom
now occupied only
by an empty double bed
when the house went
on the market at last
since he never intended
to live in that house
again after his tense
youth there he scattered
the ashes from both
boxes over the lawn
where a sprinkler
dissolved the parental
dust into the grass
and then he sold the
house to move as
far away as his talent
would allow to the
sunny sophisticated
world of sunny Italy
where he could love
pretty men and play
his violin in peace
without parental judgment