Death Echoes Poem by Sheena Blackhall

After Poems in ‘Redemption' by Ananda, (the poet Stephen Parr)

When a loved one leaves forever
Like a remaindered book
Like a door quietly closing
Does death turn the lock on light?

Nothing stirs in a coffin.
Whatever nested on the tree of life
Migrates

The body's eyes roll up,
Turn in
Become sky mirrors, glazed.

No cavalry comes riding over the hill
Crying huzzah to the rescue

Grief requires hard listening
Most telling of all is silence

Death takes time to sink a shaft in thought,
Did the life of the dead one ever really fit them?
Was it patched up, borrowed
Or was it handed down?
Does life fit everyone or are they shoehorned in?

Left behind
We wail at the aching void
The certainties of our known world cracks
We paper over the absences, over the deep crevasse