The Picture Poem by Thomas Case

Chain smoking sadness; slapped by time.
Winter doesn't freeze the pain.
There was one thing that Mom
wanted more than
anything else in the world:
It was to have a
picture of her seven
kids all together- in one place,
at one time.
There was an age difference of
23 years between the
youngest and the oldest,
and 1000 miles separating us.

In December of 1987
two weeks before Christmas,
I held a picture of the
seven of us all together.
I put it in the
right front pocket of
her navy blue blazer,
and after the funeral,
we buried her with it.