Requiem for Kate

She went while my back was turned.
Slid quietly into the great silence in her sleep,
making senseless all my unanswered questions.

The fiery spirit that forged us
doused at last by death,
no longer the beacon of our dark days;
your unsentimental love leaving its mark
in every good deed we do.

So, mother mine;
here I sit beside your grave;
full of fire-lit evenings at your feet

while you knitted and read
and talked and watched TV;
to thank you for giving us life
and teaching us how to live.