Not There
The solemn rituals of death are past
And family and friends now step away.
As solitude unchecked beckons at last
I face the first of many lonely days.
I wander through each room, forever changed
Yet with a thousand memories of you
And contemplate a future – frightening, strange
Without my love, my life, to see it through.
And oh! the coming home from work to find
All as it was when morning saw me leave
Not there to move a teacup, close the blind
Not there, the aching void left unrelieved.
We, fallible, must bear a two-edged cross
The fleeting joy of love, the pain of loss.