Father's Day Special Feature: "A Day in April" by Sierra July

A Day in April

Sierra July

Snow fell, one day in April

Lungs stilled, hearts quivered and froze

On what should have been

A warm day in spring.

Poet’s Notes: This is a sad and personal piece written to recall how I and the rest of my family felt when my dad passed away last year. As the poem states, it was a day in April and, though I didn’t think it at the time, that day was a contrast to spring’s image of growth and birth; thus I had to write about it.

Editor’s Note:  While Father’s Day is a source of joy to me as a father, it is tinged with sorrow to me as a son whose own father has been dead for many years.  As my father also died “one day in April,” I am personally moved by Ms. July’s brief but touching elegy.