for grieved companions

“Run next door,” my mother would say,
“and ask to borrow a cup of sweetness.”

Today, I add my plea for
a fine sifting of joy.

A capricious wind has swirled
the cloistered red from the bougainvilleas

into the mourning sky, and all is still
and knowing, and I need pies

cooling on the windowsill
for children passing in the street,

God knows how many, mariners all,
their names written on water.

Notes (Verse Echoes):

“We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet” (Auld Lang Syne, Robert Burns, 1759-1796)

“Red sky at morning,
Sailors take warning.” (Ancient rhyme and cited in the Bible, Matthew 16: 2-3)

“Here lies One Whose
Name was writ in Water.” (John Keats’ tombstone epitaph)