After The Fall Poem by Juan Alvarado

I came to lay you down, finally,
After such long time; I came to lay you down.
Without fanfare, no trumpets here, to announce your exit,
Only the shadows of your life.

Your music, I am told, was like a drawing in fine linen,
A master’s expression, and more,
In the grandstand, Puyallup has missed you, now that you are gone,
More are you missed now by those who know of you none.

Sketch then your sounds to the muses of eternity,
They know of your song, your passion, and pain, your enormity,
Sketch freely, now that your sounds have a never-ending ardor,
Forgiveness is not of these temporal planes, it matters no more.

I came to lay you down today, your Granddaughter at my side,
And it was harder, in death, to let go of your legacy, but it went,
Your sketches of sound, your particular feeling, your artistic creation,
all those things… all those thing I have kept in my soul.