Paul Steffan Jones 1st


 

Recently Rated:

Stats

Blogs: 125
images: 19

Animals on The Day of a Burial

user image 2020-03-10
By: Paul Steffan Jones AKA
Posted in: Poetry
Animals on The Day of a Burial

Herons explore new flood fields

red kites patrol the hearse road

up Suffering Hill

old and young

the two tongues

kin and friend

at the end

crows cosy up in creaking conifers

to watch the never ending pantomime

the rise and the fall

of the curtain of life

the labour of lowering

the strain of the load

released

the denizens of the soil

will accompany you

on your journey from person 

to depersonalisation

our endless recycling

our cheated Valhalla

of heroes without faces

of valour without bloodshed

later when routine resumes

a surprised mouse looks up

from among kindling

in a black plastic bin

before escaping me 

you 

our families 

the others

Paul Steffan Jones AKA
05/14/20 12:53:29PM @paul-steffan-jones2:

I should point out that the accompanying image is of my late father's ship, HMS Ocean, at a time when he would have been aboard it during the Suez Crisis. Though it doesn't necessarily "go" with the poem, I feel the need to include it to highlight the different trajectories of successive generations.