Minutes & Hours

Hours and minutes, minutes and hours –
My anxiety ticks and has me game;
The controller controls my mind,
For a while, I lose your name.

It’s dangerous to run this loop,
But grief has come to stay;
I act out in ways I never liked –
But I can’t rail at the sky and pray.

So I address death on my own terms;
I know well to look him in the eye;
Not weeping, I set up a funeral;
Because a lifetime is left to cry.

A dog’s heart fails to understand
Either your death, life, pictures or flame;
Yet she reminds me of smiles ahead,
With no hint of anxiety or shame.

So the hours drag on in memory,
Marking moments I can’t forget;
It’s a different grief and anxiety –
Untouched by regret.

The pyres are burnt and done now,
Releasing the tears into moon rivers;
The fortunate have done with their crying,
While exhaustion leaves me in shivers.

Funeral tears and mourning wails,
Cascade a torrent into life’s sea;
And some tears are dammed for later,
When there will be more of death to be.

My Brave Daughter, My Gentle Son

The week passed;
Yet it feels you just left.
Your presence filled our home
Now it feels bereft.

The pigeons coo at the window –
I can’t tell you to shoo them off.
It was your calling –
Now they fly in to roost.

The house is asleep –
Even Zuri leaves me for bed.
You would stay –
For the slightest sound
Made you raise your head.

A protector – and mine by choice –
Your small black face with me –
Your eyes sharp and vibrant –
Untouched by duplicity.

The house is silent with you gone;
You have found Zach somewhere –
You’re both happy together –
Leaving our home bare.

Grief has robbed my sense of time
And I still say “my kids” instead of one –
Zuri misses your bossiness
And how you’d make her run.

Heart heavy, eyes swollen, brain numb –
And if I smile, I cannot forget
My brave daughter, my gentle son.

Second Night

A diya, a picture and ashes,
All that’s left of your life,
And the memories you made,
The love you gave, despite strife.

What’s the use of my tears
Shed now before this light?
You’ve left and I’ve failed
To keep a grip this quiet night.

I didn’t falter seeing your meds,
Or your clothes, or your food,
I laughed with Zuri and a friend –
I thought I was doing good.

But morning came and I
Turned to your ashes and face;
I saw the diya flickering,
And I collapsed without grace.

How do I know love’s here,
Though you have died?
I feel it in each sob,
In each tear I just cried.