Eden

In memory

Skies like Armageddon,
aflame with danger
You don’t say it but
as we walk the palm-lined promenade 
towards our hotel,
the dawn skies a red flag unfurled over us,
you have it in your head already –
You know that when you get home,
you’ll set your life on fire
And perhaps you know, sister, 
that before long I will too 

Oh Catherine, you were the brave one,
In spite of or perhaps because of everything
you’d lived at the hands of men
You were the strong one – 
kick-boxing,
wave-surfing, 
wall-climbing and 
driving solo to the beach 
at the wheel of your camper-van,
a book and flaming driftwood for company,
knowing that loneliness can be the price to pay 
for freedom
and solitude restores you to yourself 

Oh Catherine, you set the world alight, 
And if you can hear me now, 
remember how,
beneath disco balls of silver we span, that night,
drenched in sweat and glitter,
draped around each other

Because the ones you left behind remember how, 
– will never forget, how –
a-glitter and diaphanous, 
you dazzled us with that smile of yours
brighter than any strobe

Nor will I forget how by the sea that dawn, 
as light lay down its glimmer on the water,
spilling us back into daytime and reality
– how barefoot, footsore,
twirling our shoes from our fingers –
we talked of things that must be faced,
of pain that must be waded into
for the better things to come

And they did
The good things did come
And you lived them fully, 
and by that we are consoled,
somewhat

This is why, in my head,
Catherine, 
I'm walking along that dawn promenade with you 
always and every day, 
shoes twirling in my fingers
Why even foot- and heartsore,
I’m walking towards those skies like Armageddon,
those skies aflame with danger and 
a fiery kind of hope

Photo credit: Rocio Guillen on Unsplash.