The last laugh shall be mine
for I know things that you will never know
and I have known happiness, and unending delight
even as death reached for me
and when his hand clasped mine
I welcomed it, for I had known joy
and also parting, and now my parting time had come
and I leave you behind, without regrets.
Though I’ve tried to put them into words
like any budding poet certain that people want to hear,
it was a waste of time, since few of you knew of my rewards
that made my life a dance in which I held the lovers’ hands
a song I only heard in full, a poem of great beauty
that had its beginning and its end
but never needed to be seen in print,
a painting whose colours ran the gamut
from sombre black to brilliant rainbow hues.
Read this at my memorial service,
and murmur. “I didn’t really know him
but by God he knew one thing well –
how to enjoy life on his own terms!”
MM © 2.11.2009
No comments:
Post a Comment