BY ED NORTHEN

Reading the obituaries

on Good Friday

lives are summed up

in a few lines

or perhaps paragraphs

with a photo

some surviving a century

others tragically

cut short

resulting

in unanswerable questions

of why

leaving the lamenters

in anguish

and grief

impotent

to summon

the departed

we know

the dead

stay dead

leaving those remaining

exiled

into a wasteland of loss

successes or failures

of the deceased

are inconsequential

nothing matters now

except love

given and received

those intangible emotions

stored in memories

assume a substance

transfiguring

the nebulas

into more than perceptions

the portal

to imperceptible realms

subtly opening

Ó Ed Northen

 3/13/22