For instance, I barely knew you.

For instance, not clearly visible or understood.

For instance, your face like my face.

For instance, to press upon with urgency.

For instance, I was four years old.

For instance, a combustible substance.

For instance, you came home briefly.

For instance, in the shape of a human body.

For instance, clarification in the archaic sense.

For instance, the obituary said father.

For instance, to give the impression of being.

For instance, your body was cremated.

For instance, it meant something only fleetingly.

For instance, on the way to the burial.

For instance, windows where there weren’t any.

For instance, lowered into the ground.

For instance, just ashes at this point.

For instance, when the preacher mispronounced your name.

For instance, you found it alarmingly freeing.

Liane Tyrrel is a visual artist and poet. Her poems have been included or are forthcoming in: Poetry Northwest, Peatsmoke Journal, and EcoTheo Review among others. Her prose poem “Spontaneous Combustion” was nominated for Best Short Fictions 2021. She lives and walks with her dog on the back roads of NH.