By an eleven-year old boy at Child Study and Treatment Center

 

My God-brother died a year ago.

He was fourteen.

He died by one of his friends

Who accidentally pulled the trigger of a gun.

I was as sad as coal.

My grandpa died seven or eight years ago

Of natural causes. He was ninety two.

He was in WWII.

I didn’t know him very well.

I was only four or five when he died.

After he passed away, my sister

Lived in his house.

One day, she forgot to shut the oven down.

My sister and her boyfriend went to work

And my nephew and niece went to school

And the house burnt down to the cement basement.

I will see them again one day.

 

The day this eleven-year old and I wrote together, was the one-year anniversary of the death of his God-brother. This sadness evoked the writing of other memories that were sad. He was determined to name his grief, and in the order it had occurred. I appreciate the originality of his expression “as sad as coal.” It is visual and tangible, and really, a beautiful simile.

 

--Ann, Project Lead, CSTC