Preparing to Meet Your Goliath

Cherry

By Silver Spun Sand

Fri, 04 Dec 2015
  • 3335 reads
12 comments
 
Your bed – littered with pamphlets.
Should it be a woven willow casket,
alternatively,  a bio-degradable one? 
 
A ‘Woodland Burial’, perhaps, at Olney?
 
And then again – a cremation, maybe – your ashes
scattered to the tide off Southwold Pier;
a place you’d often go to relax – unwind,
 
‘Child of the Sea’, and of mine.
 
Important decisions to be made...weighing
heavy on your mind. Organised, to a fault,
as, my darling, you always were.
 
And, would I ensure, absolutely everyone
wore bright colours; no black allowed,
you punctuated with that off-kilter smile.
 
‘Even the vicar, ' you quipped, with
a glint in those sparkling, blue-gray eyes.
 
And what of the music?  
 
How about ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ – 
Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’? You’d played them
on piano since a child.
 
It wasn’t to be called a ‘funeral’...instead, 
‘A Celebration of Life’, with acres of flowers – 
hundreds and hundreds of them.
 
‘Celebrate the life I had, don’t mourn the life
I had not,’ you said.
 
You didn’t resent one single second –
maintained that having cancer had made
 you who you were. 
 
I wanted to say this was tearing me apart.
 
Wanting to shout out loud from the hospice roof, 
‘For pity’s sake, enough was enough!’
 
To ask Him, a year from now, 
would He be able to conjure you up
as you were then; gazing out the window
at the trees and flowers you adored...
so calm – so matter of fact, so annoyingly practical.
 
So young.
 
Tomorrow was all you ever asked for,
and the chance of maybe seeing Spring
for one last time. Winter jasmine was in bloom;
its star-like, fragrant blossom, fair singing, 
from deep within the darkling scrim.
Certificate 12
Poem
Silver Spun Sand Poems
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by loquaciousicity on

Tina,

Yow drew me into an inescapable black hole...

Splendid!

Terry

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks, Terry.  I do hope you are safely out now...of that black hole, I meansmiley

Tina

 

Submitted by VeraClark on

Horridly painful, an unbearable device to use before and after in that interchangeable way which we know isnt so. A powerful, well drawn piece.

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

A heartfelt, 'thank you', Vera.

Tina

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Heart-wrenching writing.  Beautifully composed yet full of emotional turmoil, full of conflict at every level.  

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Your words very much appreciated.

Tina

 

Submitted by Bee on

Heartbreaking, yet inspiring, Tina. Such comfort to be found in being able to make these important plans and to have someone open to share them with. Some comfort in knowing you were that one, though tough at the time. 

Bee

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Indeed, Bee.  I remember that day as if it were yesterday.

Tina

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Somehow it seems that though such practical thoughts must have been so hard, they gave you both something to talk about together, and in doing so she was trying to help you have a shared occupation in the hard waiting time.
Winter Jasmine seems like a touch of spring, doesn't it? Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Very much so, Rhiannon, on all counts.

Tina

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

It wasn't to be called a  'funeral'...instead,

'A Celebration of Life', with acres of flowers -

hundreds and hundreds of them.

Those lines said it all Tina; every memory giving rise to those living moments when a loved one was full of life, and being able to share those happy times in thought.

Those recollections never leave us and maybe the loved one can be seen in those trees and flowers.

Beautifully written.

Jenny.

 

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

How right you are about those trees and flowers, Jenny.  Your empathy is more than appreciated.

Tina