31.

For Émilie

out there in the tarnished bloom
of heaven .
the light on your face is now free
dispossessed of the unkind
who turned your words into sorrow
who tarnished the corridors of your love.
your body may have turned cold
and its turmoil set free
but your marrow still holds
secrets only the guilty will see
that woman i see in the forgotten
blessings of live mornings
relives her dread and
believes that an orphaned soul
changed skeleton to suffering.
but i cannot save that which is already
safe i cannot question a secret many have
sold their life to conceal
while the rest of us brush up against
your lovely memory and breathe a hundred
whispers in the shape of your name
i call upon you to find the light
and frighten the shadows
from your distant eyes
so you can keep looking out
for all the best people you knew
and we in these softening nights
with thinning memories
remember the world you
showed us;
that we are never done
that everything can be
that tears are not quiet
nor condensed in the garden
of farewells