she made it right

my mother's older
sister,
Gloria
took her own life back
in the early sixties.
why
or where, or what
the details were
are locked away.
all the witnesses
are too old to remember
or dead.
but I remember her.
a whispery song
on her lips, her long
fingers
at the canary cage,
nodding. I remember
how strong
and worried her face
was.
how the lines were
carved, set as if in stone.
her black hair
framing
a gaze, an imperial
gaze
of what was wrong
with the world and what
could make it
right.
she made it right.