The Saddest Poem

In continuing observance of National Poetry Month, I would like to share the saddest poem I've read in a long time: "Jamie's Hair," by Michael Bishop, published this month in the Virginia Quarterly Review. This poem spoke to me in part because I'm married to a long-haired professor who gets his hair cut only to donate it; the specificity of the details about his son--murdered at Virginia Tech last year--made the poem agonizing to read. I liked how the narrator used modern details--Netflix, for example, or googling--without seeming to trivialize the subject.