After the event
Your body removed
The charcoal cleared from your car
The black events proceeded to a sergeant’s timing
First, the wake:
Men in dark suits and women in blotted kimonos
A deformity of a wedding
And the very next day, the funeral
My chest a void as the lid closed for good
How you looked like you always did
On summer afternoons, spread out in your naps
The same cowlick on that worry-free face
Now peculiarly preserved, your skin turgid, unmoving
Like your soul wandered while you slept
And never found its way back.
My friend, my lover
The story of your life is now tenderly closed
Yet in my own I have forgotten where I left off
The bookmark dissolved into nothingness
And I return home to our two boys
Aged with grief, frame and form without density
And from the distant horizon
I see the waves of life beckoning towards the shore
Wave upon wave, demanding meaning,
Demanding movement.
I close my eyes and there we are again
Summer siesta by the Grecian shore
You look so lovely when you fall asleep
Effortlessly I dream of a life, a lifetime, with you
And now my fingers bleed from shattered hopes
The afternoon sun sinks into night
And the night sinks into me.
