Lifecycle Poem by Ray Mather

People standing at graves
See their own reflections
In the epitaphs
Salute the dead
With flowers
And quiet nervous coughs
Hands smacking
Feet stamping
In the February frost

Bare trees ring the cemetery
Ghostly guards of honour
Skeletal stiff
Against the scything wind
Recalling their own Summer life
Rotting
At their feet

The dead are in the ground

Pushing
Through the leafy mound
A single snowdropp shivers
Piercing the silence of the mourners
A baby cries




© Ray Mather 1969