Prayer: Jemma

Death Dies

Upon the altar

If just

For a moment

Vanishes when,

Arms crossed

And head bowed,

My knees hit the stone

The thud

echoes, echoes, echoes

In the empty, vast space

Of white

Then silence coats everything

again

Except my mind and mouth

That murmur pleas

To him

Death then rises

Pausing to drift up and down

Like a jellyfish of black

In front of me

I could paint him

The pleas cut my mouth, coming fast now

Falling onto the floor

In front of him

Death

He stills, watching

My crushed, begging form

Then he travels into the other room

Leaving me and mine alone

I pause, lift my head to whisper thank you, and then continue:

Entreat me to leave her,

To not follow after her—

A spark of golden light

Across the floor

Ty, Dru, Tavvy

Lyvia and now ... Emma

The tears flow.

For whither she goest, I'll not yet go,

And where she lives, I'll not yet live.

Her people will not yet be my people,

The tears falter, then slow to a drip.

Where she diest, will I die, yes,

Where she is buried, there will I be buried, yes,

A shuddering, releasing sigh.

God, do so to me, and more also,

Let me live - really live - with this.

The tears stop.

Death

Then returns

Sometime later

I do not know when.

He slips out the doors

Behind me

Tomorrow,

The full coffin

Will bear testimony

To my and mine's

Peace.