On Albert Edelfelt’s Conveying a Child's Coffin, by Ron Riekki

Conveying a Child's Coffin, by Albert Edelfelt (Finland) 1879

On Albert Edelfelt’s Conveying a Child's Coffin
 
Who looks at us is who we look at. 
We don’t look at the dead, then. 
 
We look at the child next to the child 
who is dead.  Or, at least, the coffin, 
 
representing the child.  Or, at least, 
we look at the child for a bit, then 
 
at the sea, how safe it looks, as if 
it is okay to die so young, as if 
 
all of this makes sense: the boat, 
the calm, the island, the deaths.

Ron Riekki

Ron Riekki’s books include My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction (Loyola University Maryland’s Apprentice House Press), Posttraumatic (Hoot ‘n’ Waddle), and U.P. (Ghost Road Press).  He has received a Pushcart Prize, a Shenandoah Fiction Award, a Best Small Fictions selection, and been in several other anthologies.  Right now, he's listening to Elbow's "One Day Like This."