Elegy for a Lost Love

What would we have done
If that last day had been known?
Would we drive to that place
The one from before
When it was just us
Where wind-rippled grass
Rolled in living waves
Where the white flash
Of your joyful strength
Ran cresting through
Tides of familial connection

Would we stand at the junction
On the top of the hill
Where so many times
We had passed unheeding
Of all the crossroads
We would traverse together
Where each momentous change
Was brought down
To tenacious footfalls
On gravel-strewn life

Would we sit while the sun
Wheeled pensive on hallowed skies
Where your head
Was ever cocked
To all the possibilities
Of all the unsaid, unneeded words
Where the nestled silence
Of our shared belonging
Was voice enough of love

That day was many days
Many hours laid upon many years
It was not our last day
But it is the day I choose to remember

The loss is profound
The grief still tender

As fragile as the fleeting delight
Of a new prairie crocus
Budded on together treaded paths
Fuzzy petals soft against your fuzzy heart

As fragile as the inept words
I try to piece together
To honour the nobility of spirit
And enduring affection
That were always to be your legacy

As fragile, as apt
To dissolve into dark waters
As the light in your puppy brown eyes
On the day you left.


#poetry #elegy #forpippin #love #grief

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