outside the coffin

this was written about my grandfather who had passed away in 2012.

I remember seeing him there,

laying all bare. 

A lifeless form;

rotting in front of me. 

He wasn't the man I knew,

a man who smiled.

This man that laid there

only had a grin,

a grin only death could make. 

His hair was aligned,

not like I remember when he was alive. 

I could tell from outside the coffin 

that he was cold to touch and hard to hug. 

I remember looking close,

seeing the powder hide his deathly skin; 

skin no longer soft but rough to touch. 

He was no longer the man I knew,

he was't my grandfather; 

just a cocoon. 

~AS~