Grief's Good Manners by Hilary King

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Grief’s Good Manners

My mother drowned our sorrow
               in monograms and gin,
taught us to push grief down,
               down, down, a burial 
that would take a lifetime--
               many lifetimes, one 
for each child left fatherless.
               So polite.
So strong.
                We were stone
We would spend the rest of our lives
                eroding.

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Originally from Virginia, Hilary King now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Her poems have appeared in Fourth River, Belletrist, PANK, Caesura, Gyroscope Review, Blue Fifth Review, Sky Island Journal, Mom Egg Poetry Review, Vinyl Poetry, The Cortland Review and other publications. She is the author of the book of poems, The Maid's Car.

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