Graveside

Graveside / Fr. Gabriel Rochelle

Gray rain
Still air
The finches of early Spring
            Momentarily songless
We stand surviving
            Momentarily speechless
More images flash by
            Than you can look at, almost
            More than you can imagine

Gray rain
Of memories
open car doors here
Open graves there
The finches of other years
The moldy smell
             Of the Poconos in spring rain
The riffling of cards
             Shuffled in summer heat

Flashing images
             transparent overlays
             In an anatomy textbook
             Faces from youth to aging
             Raging sense now gone by
             Dry like the leaves of November

Remember that you are dust
             And to dust you shall return

Composed of memories
             We talk until
             We have fabricated
             Out of words
             A picture to hold
            The dust you were
            Against the dust
            You are becoming

31 March 1995

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