Coda

For George 

April 11, 2022

In long years now suddenly past

Memories float before we understand 

That they are the realness of all that

We have left when he is gone 

On a terrible April day

We lost this beautiful human being 

And searching for consolation

I close my eyes this night

And sense him filling up into

Eternity, tethers loosening as 

He flies above these bonds of earth

And in his gentle ways

We are with him

He carries us, for

Such is love 

               *************

On this day there was no rain,

The air temperate

And not unusual in Maine

In the ordinary palate of that sky,

His last moments hoped serene and sunny, 

Portending spring, 

Up on the second level

Of the place he told us was going 

To be his last, his last big build

I imagine as he grasped his hammer

He knew the daffodils were 

Just beginning, altho no lupines yet

And that Androscoggin shimmered 

In the placid of the day 

And then 

Mandala, veiled and porous, 

Encircling a certain slant of light,

Whiff of sawdust,

Quirk of wind,

Paused his given nanosecond in 

This life’s time, and 

George was gone. 

This was his day.

And now he goes, as 

He goes now 

Into the gold of his new light.