Fathers serve as pallbearers
at strangers’ funerals
to induce the first stage of grief;

mothers retrieve revolvers
hidden around houses,
unload chambers,
and swallow bullets
with sips of Chardonnay;

sons flee to the mountains
and pitch camp in the caves
of hibernating bears;

and daughters rip heads and limbs
off dolls, rebuild each body
with random parts,
and appoint themselves generals
of bastard armies.