Requiem for a Fallen Angel

A natural law to which there is no exception:

Sooner or later we will cease being and to function.

A verity, but why this is so, we will never know.

Unwittingly we are witnessing a terrible show:

An unending tug of war between friend and foe,

Unlike the harmony between leg, foot, and toe.

Life, our friend, through birth, replenishes the population,

Death, our foe, waves the specter of its extinction.

One of our angels who had a fatal fall,

Forever, will no longer respond to our friendly call.

Like fallen autumn leaf absent around spring,

Only a kluge of a sound will come from a guitar missing a string.

When absent among the livings, is a close relative’s name

It means that one’s perspective will never be the same.

From our communal listing, this angel is forever gone,

A most painful fact for it can’t be undone.

Saying farewell and good-by,

But really meaning or wishing for a stand-by,

Like the buoy on rough water remaining steady.

Wishful musings for sure, but nonetheless heady.

One of our eternal dreams: how we wish we could last forever!

Can at least the memories and the spirit never

Be forgotten? And for good reason will the good deeds

Not be buried but germinate and become good seeds?

An angel has fallen; why now, we will never know.

It is painfully obvious we are lining in a row,

Oblivious or not, but getting ready for the final tow

Which will come at its own speed, swift or slow.

Our time is ticking and most unfortunately, someday,

Somewhere, somehow, like today,

Come rain, come shine, a turn, our own,

Will come and we will go on

The trek that we have to take all alone,

From hither to yon.

REYNALD ALTEMA, MD