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Passaway

Author: 
Penelope Shuttle

deep sorrow for his passaway

              sorry we lost he

 

after your passaway 

              I give you river, 

              cloud reflected in river

 

You give back river 

              you give back cloud

 

sorry we lost he

 

I give you whirling dervish of house, 

              half-mile of heron

 

You give them back, 

              you are passaway

 

I give you memory 

              of our weekdays and weekends 

                            and all the days in between

 

You give them back 

              with or without sorrow 

                            I can’t tell

 

sorry we lost he

 

I give you hodgepodge of spiders, 

              Love’s dagger-proof coat, 

                            myself when young

 

I give you river and cloud, 

              you return them, unused, 

                            don’t need them

 

              you are passaway

 

From The Rialto No 65 (Summer 2008)