I don’t know where you are..
where you will go
I do know you came from
a place of light and laughter
because when I looked up and saw your eyes
I saw only sunshine and unblemished hope.
I remember you as my childhood..
You in a hill side cottage playing chess with your nephew
parodying the snatch of a song
knocking your chest and saying, “steel!”
Calling me not by my name
but an endearment that summed me up as
your child.
I remember the frothy spring that burst out of hillsides beyond your verandah..every monsoon
I remember the wild flowers growing outside your door
I remember you as a Boney M song
As a walk down the streets of a hilly town
As that bike ride when you told me
“the world will never come to an end..people are not that crazy.”
I remember the songs you played, the records you collected,
the books you read with a cigarette in your bath..
the same..where you hid from a prospective match-maker while we whispered and laughed.
You were the knowledge that even though all may end.. you were there.
And always would be.
And yet, here you are not.
I do not know who or what got you in the end..
but something did.
And the world ended for you even though it goes on
for the rest of us.
I don’t know where you are..
I do hope though
that you have a home that overlooks a monsoon spring
I hope you play chess still
and laugh loudly and long..
I hope you know
that even though this world was not the place for you
you belong where you are now..
and will never be asked to leave.
And in that home with doors open to deathless hope..
you will parody songs with that funny lisp..
for as long as you want.
poignant is often overused, but can’t think of anything better to sum this one up
This is really beautiful, how wonderful to be so loved and remembered, whatever the sadness one left behind. Beatifully expressed. Much love to you.