Stopping for a Wake

 

 

 

 

 

Walking round the outer edges

of the room so to avoid the empty

metal chairs that fit neatly in rows of ten

waiting to sit as if death’s witnesses;

clusters of family share quietly

like strangers whispering secrets

for time has changed everyone to older

forms of the stilled images pictured

in the photographs of a chronicle

that covers a hundred years of connections.

 

From the nostalgic old fashion clothes and hair styles

through today and the time that is left -

now the mind winces; the heart trembles; the eye tears

and the spirit tilts slightly; bowing

to the uncertain probabilities

as the presence of death’s vestige lies in open view

and each one who passes by, in final respect,

senses the nearness of the frozen moment

when we will come to an end

and someone gathers the picture’s stopping for a wake.