1

Night falls

I hear crickets

And the sound of waves

As the sea marks

A quiet day

Towards a somber weekend

2

I have lived with face masks

And face shields

For years

And where did they get me?

I learned to greet

With muffled voice

And learned to smile

With my own eyes

I learned how to breath

With ease

With soft cloth

And plastic cover

Plugging your nose

And your mouth.

Instead of a hug

I learned how to wave gently

At people you love

3

How do you reflect

A thousand deaths

For many years?

Like this distinguished actor

From whose stage lines you saw

A glimpse of many lives

Now

I prefer silence

To hackneyed lines

Expressing sorrow

And new-found peace

4

I like waking up early

To contemplate

How one should close

Decades of a life.

I like the dirge-like sound

In the scenes of parting

As imagined by a Chopin nocturne

Or a symphonic rendering

Of grief

As defined in Beethoven’s third symphony

When I hear it

It never fails to conjure images

Of cemetery-bound procession.

With images of cremation

And a quiet parting.

5

I like to go quietly

Without elaborate notices.

I like a cinematographer’s grasp of life

And death

As you recall your first birth cry

In this village by the sea.

I like quiet exits

I don’t like sights and sounds

Of pomp and circumstance

As your loved ones

Look at your urn

For the last time

6

I recall

This cemetery by the sea

In my hometown.

At sunset

It is an eerie sight.

Next day

With the first sunlight

Filtering through the tombs

You see birds flying around

Celebrating life

As they chirp

Sounds akin to

Strauss’s Voices of Spring.