Funeral Mother Daughter Poems | Examples

Demeter At the Chinese Opera

DEMETER AT THE CHINESE OPERA


So, I invited you to the Chinese Opera impulsively
Thinking of masks and dragons and triumphant mystery
I though it was time we threw off our coats
Of mourning, you for your  daughter

Stopping one night, on the way home from a party,
So randomly, cruelly, killed by the monster
Who has slain more than all the century’s wars
And my private sorrow for which there is no funeral.

I remember your straying husband also
Loved the Chinese Opera.  What will happen
If we all meet between the acts?
Surely forgiveness will come like snow on the mountain

And we will live in a harmony that can never be suppressed
In a slow majestic music that takes account of grief. 

(C) Rosemarie Rowley
From IN MEMORY OF HER (2008)