Something warm
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 1:16 am
Suddenly, everyone’s parents were dying
Falling down stairs and crashing the walls
Tumbling like the leaves outside
Wilting like weightwatchers gone wild.
Funerals, eulogies
Kaddishes were sung
In tearfilled voice by trembling sons
Children not so young
United unexpectedly in grief
By stealth, with little warning
In the age of global warming
The generations come to pass
Fathers and canes bearing red medallions
Mothers in nursing uniform
Neat and tidy in their rows
Eyes right
Eyes front and down
The generation passing home
Some ranks are silent, some alone
Others are holding hands, waving goodbye
To their world Forever England
To heavens behind the hedge rows
Their pea-soup Jerusalems.
Their absences seeped out
Began to flood the land
We reached for something warm, and dry
And human that remained.
Falling down stairs and crashing the walls
Tumbling like the leaves outside
Wilting like weightwatchers gone wild.
Funerals, eulogies
Kaddishes were sung
In tearfilled voice by trembling sons
Children not so young
United unexpectedly in grief
By stealth, with little warning
In the age of global warming
The generations come to pass
Fathers and canes bearing red medallions
Mothers in nursing uniform
Neat and tidy in their rows
Eyes right
Eyes front and down
The generation passing home
Some ranks are silent, some alone
Others are holding hands, waving goodbye
To their world Forever England
To heavens behind the hedge rows
Their pea-soup Jerusalems.
Their absences seeped out
Began to flood the land
We reached for something warm, and dry
And human that remained.
