summer gloom

be careful what you wish for

the sun glints through the trees ...

I waited so long
to soak you up
and bathe
in your summer glow,

I forgot the gloom
that hangs over
your memory
like clouds
on a perfect day ---

a sparkling smile
on the water
snuffed out like a candle
between callous fingers --

a kindness gone forever
from this world,
run down by
a careless thought.

a gentle heart
too tender
to beat
past twenty three --

brothers
whose minds broke
under the weight
of passing freight --

the season I love
is also
the season
of death.

Author's Note

Reviews

[Kenneth The Poet]

Reminds me of my grandfather's funeral the year Obama was first elected. It was a gloomy day but the sun and the countryside were beautiful for sure. I think he went at the perfect time in a way.

[LastMonth]

Well.
I've attended a few funerals.
Never easy, I've long since given up on trying to connect it with seasons, rain, sunshine and such.
Too much is happening in the world at any given time,
In a way that made their deaths look less apocalyptic, less important to the grand scheme of things.
It still hurts like a b***h.

Thank you for the poem.

[Lyn Anderson]

Oh, it is not intentional connection, it just happens to me automatically, like some people feel sad in the winter.

[redzone]

death has no season, and many times has no reason... it is just there and always mocking the living, my grand mother died (stroke) in Summer as did one of my high school friends (Vietnam) the Fall took a good friend through a home invasion murder; and just recently Winter took a good friend though disease... all were hard to take... your poem does remind us of the sadness of death as well as the warmth of life... nice choice of music to go with as well...

redzone

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you -- for certain we always connect to something that reminds us -- it is our way -- and as soon as the grass is green and the sun is bright, I think of all the people of whom my last memory is a casket or an urn.

[Matching Socks]

This leaves a lump in my throat.

[Lyn Anderson]

It does mine too. Summer is a double edge sword for me. Every major death I have experienced has been in the summer -- all of them sudden, most of them young people. Every funeral I have ever attended was on a beautiful sunny day.

[Matching Socks]

I've only lost one. It was a cold winter day. There's never a better time or a worse time.
It just sucks all around.

[Lyn Anderson]

Death isn't a pleasant thing, for sure. I have loved too many people who died in accidents and suicides.