entombing adel.

wrote a little something to remember a friend by. it took a long while (with, oddly enough, a little help from an arundel tomb by larkin) before i got this out, i guess i'll never be satisfied with watever i churn out to remember adel by. oh well.

so friend, if u can read this, i hope u like it.

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(revised 26/12/05, made it tighter)
(revised 27/12/05, becoz i am anal about these things)

Entombing Adel

Passing
wall after wall, trying to remember which
held you.
Whether your photograph was lodged
in black and white
or was it Fuji-coloured
to have you stand out
from these other common deaths, and
if, in all absurdity, did they
have you smiling?

I imagined someone who loved you
working out the details,
choosing walls from a catalogue,
considering which amongst the dead
would make the best neighbours.
Then, reaching into his pocket,
taking out his wallet,
trying to keep from crying while
the priest counts the money.
In such matters, nobody bargains.

Your concretised niche,
marble surface-work and trimmings
carried a tiny porcelain vase
super-glued to stone,
and just enough to hold
one miniature bouquet at a time.
Today, I counted two plastic flowers,
edged with paper petals,
cob-webbed.

There is a couple here,
holding each other as they whispered
today’s news for their own dead.
Could they hear at all
within the silence of all this white?
Do they even want to.
An old man sits, facing another wall,
trying to imagine how his picture would look
next to hers.
We both sensed her approval within that smile.

Outside, a fierce sun.
The sound of children disrupting everything.
At the lobby where you used to wait
for Mass to begin,
two women were waiting for the priest
to come, bless their babbles and
tell them about God.
A car left in the direction I was headed to next;
I followed without turning back.


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listening to: godspeed (sweet dreams) - dixie chicks
reading: yesterday's papers and the nkf debacle.

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