Your absence is noted
Life goes by exactly the same until it changes and nothing is ever the same again.
It is all so mundane and ordinary, even when momentous events are taking place.
One side of the window is catastrophe.
The other side is bathed in normality.
There are worlds separated by a pane of glass a universe thick.
Life goes by right up until death intrudes, so rude, so unexpectedly predictable; so shocking.
Your absence is noted
All the colours were the same,
Tinged with disbelief.
Inside it was clinical –
Curtain drawn around a bed,
And all was still and neat.
Outside, the sun shone as usual;
Another bright sunny day
Towards the end
Of a fabulous summer –
The warmth belying the mood.
Nothing was real
Until I touched the cold
Hard white marble of your face
Then the whole universe shifted.
Outside the window
It was now bleary.
A man walked his dog.
A woman entered the phone box.
An old man with a stick,
Bent and stiff,
Walked slowly past,
Carrying a bag of shopping.
How could it possibly
Be so ordinary?
Opher 13.5.2016