Elegy
Sensing your presence
waiting somewhere beyond
the schoolyard trees
as the late afternoon
infant class piano
struck up ‘All Things Bright
And Beautiful’
The last song
before the rush of hometime
through the corridors and cloakrooms
to the open sky
Icecream comets, country lanes
and cricket meadows
beyond All Hallows church
Red Admirals and high hedgerows
All vivid still
as the colors of old
railway station posters
Mother and son
We walked for hours after school
- or so it seemed
For moments then were large
and took their time to ripen
in the summer sun
In those days you had no face
nor form, just heat and sounds
of love, for you were everything
including me
Unreal as dreams and thoughts
and real as nothing else
can ever be
Lying here now at 3 a.m.
drawn tight by death
you’re real enough
Real and as distant
as the small blue case of clothes
standing unopened
in the corner
of the hospital room
No doubt now about the contours
of your face
So small yet massive
in its petrified repose
Only the mortal weight remaining
of a life distilled
into the essence
of my own.
Page(s) 13-14
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