Douglas Houston
Over the Water
i.m. Gavin Houston 1949 – 2006
The birds at dawn are singing to the light
That will not fall on you now you are gone.
The tide flows on.
The wind bears gulls in stationary flight
And hauls the piled clouds westward all day long.
Now you are gone,
New weather signals spring is waiting where
You won’t arrive with us. Your journey’s done,
Now you are gone
And have no present tense, displace no air,
A dear abstraction as we carry on.
Your journey’s done.
Pharaohonic, how you sailed off in your bed,
Death’s tide race bearing you where you are gone.
Your journey’s done.
Astronomer, the stars you loved still shed
Their light for us against oblivion,
Where you are gone,
Beyond the reach of gratitude and guilt
For help you gave now that I can’t respond,
Where you are gone,
Out on the ebb to leave this precious silt,
The memories of how your life once shone.
The tide flows on.
Page(s) 93
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