Three Candles: For The Innocents Poem by GORDON GILHULY

one

in the softness of candles
it is not your face that
I remember but your
grace you are thin ribbons
dancing
spirals of a silver/grey
borealis you moving
through space you
shimmering
against always against
black absence of colour
backdrop for your vitality
your essence always there is
a spotlight you are the
only dancer you are
the dance the double
helix of my life
suspended
you are gone the
air mourns
your lightness
becomes vacuum
at the inquest


two:

in the tomb light
of silent candles
in the void of
your nonexistence
is a new shape this
is a new dance the
ribbons opaque these new
spirals obtuse as inexplicable
loss where are you gone
what is the
DNA of death
clouds who cannot emulate
you mourn your passing at
the post mortem

three:

beyond death flickering lights
obsess me vigil
candles for the quick and
the dead
their heat divides the world
in two the black/white
simplicity in the syncopation
in the schizophrenic dance
of rising and falling
you are gone
and in the darkness
only the truthful
and efficient stars can see
to mourn as you pass
beyond the dance
beyond the light