A Sudden Death Poem by Brenda Whiteside

I visited his grave and thought to find him there
For death had swiftly come and I must go to say goodbye:
But as I stood and cast my eye upon the earth so lately moved
Where I had seen him lain that very morn, I found him not

For though finality insists that death's completeness came that day
And ne'er again my heart need wonder where he dwells
Still I turned away unsatisfied and searching
And elsewhere found him where he laughed and lived

For he was gone but not yet gone to those he loved
His memory like flesh and bone would neither soon decay
Through sharply focused thought of him I kept him near
Negating death, his faults and imperfection quietly done away

But time brings blessed reality to check this rapturous grief
Then grief's exquisite agony is calmed by memory with imperfection blent
And I while knowing he no longer looks and laughs and is as once he was
Yet for his sake must claim to know him still