I remember us

This afternoon

the sunlight is hard and coarse 
the clouds try desperately 
to blot it out.

The mourners are subdued 
as a rock concert crowd 
at the beginning 
of the saddest song.

Each person 
brings a flower: 
a shortened life 
like the girl 
in the white coffin.

Well-meant words 
fly aimlessly 
as pretty butterflies 
around the family.

A father stands, 
he's a teddy bear 
that's lost its favourite child.

A mother cries distraught
- an abandoned china doll 
in paradise.

And finally a son 
who can't keep wicket 
to his sister anymore.

Their grief is as stubborn 
as that hard sunlight
which reaches the ground today.