my aunt gets drunk
at a christmas party
and suddenly
i am eight again
hearing the slurs
of another alcoholic.
she falls to the floor in a heap,
the same way my mother did.
the difference was,
my aunt is able
to get back up again.

i remember when she and i
walked across the beach,
the water giving back
a small part of what it took.
"look," she said gesturing to the ocean.
"the salt heals as well as time."
but neither salt nor time
heals the dead.