Elegy For Little Nick

Drop drizzling petals of tears here For Little Nick, weep the emptiness left behind, The void in the ocean of love, care Stumbling through the shadows bereft and blind. Balm O fragrant wind our despair Memories that cannot wilt at the altar of pain. Death is a common tragedy we share Faith makes it better, touch hope with prayer again. Little Nick, I did know you, but I know the memory Familiar as my own son taken away Before youth was past, or joy wrote a history Of his dream. So weep I this child today So weep I, for I am a silent witness to this grief That sometimes threatens faith and belief. You know its natural for the old to die At least we expect it after our boredom Have discovered life is a waiting game, But the young wilt as a morning blossom Too soon for dreams to tell what flame Was in them, what light to give or to seer The hills where soldiers fall, or bear there A flag scrawled on sky a wordless page to stare Upon. Yet there is more meaning than this More than missing soldiers and flagged heroes In the hollow tides of messages, that we miss. God takes his own from among the young, sows Them anew among the stars to light us home. And what is meant for evil is changed to good In the blinking moment of a tear. I've combed Scriptures, and philosophies hounding blood For answers before, and then he took me there To the parting door, and I seeing though blind Understood how the cross made heaven bare And blend human loss to love in heaven's mind. So through our hot and weary days of the panting sun Ww will think of you, little Nick, God's work is well done.