This is Fine

Henry Strayer

the beginning of a good book, a book that holds all my successes and 

failures are just a chance to get better is what I’m told by friends and 

family are too busy to really care, they just pretend by smiling and 

laughing comes in gales, uncles and aunts and grandparents giggling and 

trying to see the humor in the grim affairs of the funeral service and 

the reception after is a party, finger foods and juice for the kids and 

former alcoholics who make up a formidable percentage of this and 

every other family must be just as happy as we are, at least I hope and 

pray that there’s a better way to do things, but statistical analysis and 

my own intuition says that everything will get better if we wait and 

pretend to believe that the future won’t be like the past, twisted and 

beautiful trees border the parking lot as we say our goodbyes and 

make promises we can’t keep, all of us in a hurry to go, to leave and 

begin a long drive home, the nighttime sky pleasant shades of black and 

blue like my cousin’s back I saw at the reception as he was running and 

jumping like a star football athlete, maybe he has the determination and 

drive he needs to break free from the cycle we’re still a part of, him and 

all the rest of us are a family filling the pages of photo albums and 

family portraits can make anyone look good, even the obscene and 

grotesque parts of our history can be forgiven because love and 

kindness is in such precious short supply we may as well forget and 

forgive is good advice to try and follow, to rise above the past and 

everything that it represents will hound you for the rest of your life and 

your future is what you make of it, stretching out like a fresh start and