24.9.11

After the Storm



Olive skin

Death has lightened me toward you now

Your olive bound skin
Is fading
Beneath the grove I have formed for you
Your strong man hands
Are gripping still – this childhood grasp
Softer - now that you have gone
Here  
More often than you could before

Death has lightened me toward you now
And showed her soft face again
Gentled your accent
Quietened your unsettling
Warmed your gaze

She has given her kindness to me
And left the others bruised
Bent backward and wondering

Those infant hands reached for you as they
Lowered you down
Eyes like a bloodline – beating hard
To raise you back up again

They stumbled you know – let you slip
You would have laughed
Knowing
With the sport, and the dance and the strength of the trade
You would never have let that happen

We both sit, he and I, with the gifts
Your fathering gave  
Bright and terrible and tremendous
Rest them in our palms
Fire them up
Switch them off
Nurture them

Tending to that Olive Grove
That lies
With you
For you
Oceans away
Right here

Yes. I have lightened toward you
Now that you are gone


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