The Bed is Made, 2009

I remember once upon
a time not long ago,
when I woke and saw the sun,
it’s golden hue and glow
And when I rose, my eye, a gleam,
welled up once a childhood dream
When all was well with me, with life,
with family and friends,
but as time passed,
we got together and we laughed,
and laughing left the wind,
as once bright smiling faces end.

When aunts and uncles and my dad,
one by one they turned up dead,
and left a print on me, to say,
enjoy your youth, enjoy the day;
the day you wake to see the sun,
smile another day begun,
enjoy it while you can because,
it cannot last and that’s the clause,
the blessing and the curse of life,
to live and struggle through the nights,
transient it all goes by,
like the sun across the sky.
It turns to night and then it fades,
a sonorous cascade parade.

Faces smiling, saying, “Hi,”
same faces fading, saying, “Bye.”
Just to cross the great divide
and watch us from the other side,
the Earthen urn that opens wide—
until we’re tucked away inside,
a cement stone above our head,
while we in silence lay in bed,
with wilted flowers overhead—
They kneel before the stone each day,
mumble I love you, walk away.

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