You Are Gone
When your death comes
its announcement rolls off the tongue
a freight train suddenly emerges from a tunnel
We know death comes for all of us
but still sends tiny shockwaves
an electrocution of all we have known
And we hear the stone of your life drop, heavy
the space between leaving a hand and when
it hits the water of this well we are all standing above
We look over the edge
into the hollow throat of darkness
hear the splash
the sound before the sinking into a bottomless depth
I picture the ripples, know they are there
although none of us can see them
only feel their force in the face of the unknown
There is a stillness, a suspendedness
a bird floating on the wind, effortlessly
You are held by something invisible, powerful
A kite to which the string has been pulled from our hands
you fly, now untethered
We watch and wail and try to grasp
at the minuscule thread we thought connected you to us
now we can see the mirage of our belonging
and know something much greater holds us together
