Beyond the peace that flowed from her living sleep
That stopped suddenly
In her bedroom near dawn
Was a hall with a curtain and an oven
For her body
To lift away
As smoke
Into Sydney’s contrasting light.
On the perfectly green lawn
Of the modern crematorium
Ice cold filled with fire
In the July winter sun
We were so deeply moved
By your scared kind wishes,
Evaporating in front of us
As we tried to survive the future
As she lay there, ready
I brushed her hair
As I often did before
Even though her skull
And emptied
And closed
I listened to other people
Behind me talk about her life.
And crying
And laughing
(Her laughter was real once
Already a memory then
Now drifted away
And gone
Imagine that
If you can)
She left pursued by white balloons
Brought along to the scene
By someone I didn’t know
Who was doing their very best.
After handshakes and hugs
We went down to the pub.
And I started drinking
For years.
