Cremation

The brick wall towers over
the low curtained aperture.
The silent congregation watches
his coffin slide along the
narrow rails, the curtains
draw back to make way
for his exit down to
the crematorium fire below
to burn the outer shell and
energy of the soul he used to be.

Yet it does not extinguish
the fine spun steel web he twisted
around us from our earliest days,
a web of self doubt, uncertainty,
neve knowing where we stood.
Clinging to each other at first,
we gradually moved apart as we
saw those spun steels for ourselves,
walked away from them.

As we each find, untwist, our
own strands of that web,
we allow ourselves to achieve,
to love and be loved,
find joy in life, walking
in our own directions.

Two of us have recognised the web
and look for fulfilment each day.
One of us has yet to
acknowledge fully the web,
denies all its power over us.

Will we ever find
a close relationship
with each other again ?


Previously posted May 2016.