crow

Today we gathered;
wearied, ragged and formal
to face the necessary metaphors
of a death, viewed
through the eyes of the living.

Today we gather
memories and tales, phantoms
of fact, leavened with just enough fiction
to embellish
the discord of your silence.

Today, we gathered
odd fragments of separation
and placed a cairn of illusion upon
an undertow
dissolute with vacant tides.

Today, we gather:
old ghosts in reflection,
glimpsing the shadows in passing eyes,
in shoulders stooped,
weighed, under this day's burden.

Today we gathered.