Frances Corkey Thompson

Honouring the Ancient Dead

When grave-clothes were reverently selected
and sometimes treasures and insignia,
when the person was lowered deep, and blanketed
with flowers and a tombstone or a holly-tree;
when relief quietly entered chasms of pain
and some could smile again though others found grief
to be their comrade; when blooms wilted and creatures
chirruped in grass that sprang high was it true
that a being of the substance of the stars
was now and forever departed? – with deeds and demeanours
born of this skull, knowing lodged in those bones,
and how to read absence? Whatever the rag and bone
and shiny splendours labelled under glass, this honouring too
shall pass. We, the living, stand here, asking.

Frances Corkey Thompson