As I Die

Let this time for parting be sweet
As love melts to memory
          As pain to songs,
And the gentle last touch of your hand
Soft like a flower
That only blooms at night.
Be still now my soul
My death is but completion
My lamp no longer lights the way.

And while I am gone,
In the depth of your hopes
          And desires
Exists your knowledge of the beyond
          Unacknowledged,
Like bulbs under the snow
          Dream of spring,
My restless breath now rises
          To seek God unfettered.

A Meal, Post Marriage

Alone,  at my breakfast table
In an otherwise empty room,  ruminating
The bitter taste her beauty held,
How that kept me in sway
And the loss of two castles
Each charming in its way
And missing them (but it wasn't a catastrophe)
Even losing her (the voice and gestures
I'd loved)
I shan't have lied, but the art
Of losing is not hard to master
Though it does look like (write it pen!)
Like disaster.