Memorium

Skin and bones, And the muscles straining--- I'm sorry, brother, For your painful self-loss. The eyes that had The spark, silver-blue, And the smile that held Your life---drained now. The silver ran down Your ghost-thin cheek, And you said that you were tired. You lay back, Like a fragile bird With a body too heavy For its wings; Your breath was like a butterfly, Flitting; Your empty eyes, that last night, Searching first, gradually still, And you said that you were tired. I had never seen you so pale, So still, Never witnessed the final hours; I had expected it would come With sweeping dramatics, With sudden gloom, But it was soft; it crept And purred, Nestled close, and whispered To you. And, in the end, You smiled, and accepted--- All you said, that last night, Was that you were tired.