Farewell - a poem

Dear Readers
here is a poem with a touch of sentimentality - very cleverly left under my pillow by theokwek (i woke up to find a squashed piece of paper there...) it comes a day after the second anniversary of the passing of dearly beloved Pastor Cheah of CERC. We all miss him.
The Straight Times Editor

Farewell

Sitting in the cemetery
Precious violin in hand
Leaning against the head-stones
Staring across the sand

Graves lie neatly
In undulating orderliness
With quiet perfection
And untouchable peacefulness

A new cortege arrives
Bearing another loved one
They wipe a tear, sing a hymn
And weep for a husband, father and son

But
Even in this sorrow and grief untold
The air is with youth
Aglow

Younger generations
Play on, unfazed
Chasing birds in the miniature
Marble maze

Not knowing that
Dad is not just ‘on holiday’
But on a trip to somewhere
Where he will forever stay

The cortege leaves
And the cemetery falls silent once again
In the midday peace I lift my violin
And play a soft refrain

An elegy to that special soul
I never knew
A ceremonial cannon boom in the distance
Commemorates the demise of a fateful afternoon
And the birth
Of a day
Anew