Amalia Herren-Lage

Questions I have about the myth of Pandora

When our black cat ran off, his brother spent weeks
smelling for traces of him in the woodpile,
whiskers twitching out into darkness
as if asking, are you there? Are you there?
It was maddening how he refused to give-up,
his small, soft body, always a question,
unable to comprehend the passage of time.
We lived his inconclusive grief with him,
felt the sickening scrape of disappointment
through our stomachs just as sharply.
Without the body, without the smell
or the flies filling the eye sockets, hope slunk
cruelly through the house to haunt us.
Death is the only acceptable loss.

Yesterday, my father
told me he dreams my brother is dead. Only then
can he stand in the doorway of our old, shared
bedroom and weep.

Amalia Herren-Lage is about to graduate from Bates College with a BA in Gender and Sexuality Studies. At Bates, she has been passionate about science and technology studies, and creative writing, culminating in a semi-creative senior thesis exploring biological citizenship and disability studies as they relate to her experience with a terminally ill mother. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading poetry, and visiting her family in Spain.