….And somewhere is the sky still blue
And the sun poignant on the morning dew
As then…..
And the white sea birds overhead
Floating in idleness, as when
The waves lapped quietly in gentleness,
In innocence?
This was before the shades that called us hence,
Me from you and you from me;
The arid time despite the recompense
Of children singing; of mountains high
That rose between us, that perplexedly
We could not scale.
The rough winds flail,
The air is taut and cold;
Above the green, the lawn, the broken turfs,
The sky is mute and old.
Husband, I loved you;
Did you think of me
Dreaming, when days of innocence were gone?
How could I know
That you, in exile, would so quietly lie
Beneath the green turf, the grey sky
That shone so blue when we walked hand in hand?
Was that another land?
Although the sap has burgeoned into leaf
Beneath a sky of grief
And rain beats down upon your buried strand?
Gwen Belson-Taylor (published 1986)