deleted name: You know the received wisdom about grief, Skunk, that there are five stages?
unwrapping his hand from the breakfast coffee and lifting it into the air as a fist, opening thumb and subsequent fingers for each counted off:
deleted name: Denial,
thumb
deleted name: anger,
index finger
deleted name: bargaining,
middle finger
deleted name: depression,
ring finger
deleted name: and acceptance.
little finger, gesturing with his now open palm,
deleted name: What’s not there, what’s missing?
Sensing this to be rhetorical, Brother Skunk awaits the answer.
deleted name: Understanding. Comprehension. You will long have exhausted your capacity for grief before you ever understand it.
pause
deleted name: Because you will never understand it,
shrugs, collecting up his mug
deleted name: “said Elvis.”
Neither speak her name.
