HENRY'S SON

Born 6 July 1834
South, Lunenburg County

Baptized 27 July 1834

Dutch Reformed Church, Lunenburg

Dies in mid-winter at 18 months 
Apparently a handful of months 
after the family arrives...

Pleasant River Settlement 1836

They aught not do 

this in January

Hiding him in earth

without lilacs or roses

So light  

So soft  

So cold

In her rough cabin

stifled and broken

Mary An keeps watch

beside his small body

Stiff strong fingers pleat her

thin skin of black mourning

Mother 

flesh 

convulses

Remembering the moment he broke

from her womb into this wild world

Two steel-rimmed troughs

cut the snow-slurred muck

Slice through frost

The wagon drags

its burden to the top

of Cemetery Hill

Breathless   Without sound

I sing to you my first son

This harsh earth cries

out for your bones

I kneel and gently lay

my fresh bouquet of tears

Hush      Walk with quiet feet

Children sleep beneath this soil