Lamentation for the death of a friend

I have finished many things today

a book, a cup of coffee

but I have not

finished mourning you

I have completed the things I must

clocked out, gone home but yet

The things I’ve left unsaid, undone

in the presence of a tender friend

Are crowding all my thoughts

sowing grief

in memories of a man

whom the autumn of years had yet to set

on hair not yet fully gray

I have closed out the day

the door, my eyes

but I cannot close the casket

still open; still warm in feeling

still framed by flowers and weeping

You are free; moved on

but I cannot

only bare forward the measure of injustice

in worldly terms, pray for understanding

I picture you seated at a table full,

name card in front of you

Laughing where tears can not live

But where you will, forever more

You are gone

but memories are not

you have finished, here

but here I sit

remembering, mourning

believing the day will come

when we will take hands

with a hearty shake and a loud amen

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