Paying Respects

For Maurice

The quince you so admired each year

has blossomed – a flamenco show.

Your wallflowers have now appeared,

a golden frieze you will not know.

Your clock chimes through the party wall;

no other human sound disturbs

the creaks and phantom footfalls, nor

your silence, nor the garden birds.

You hated dark, and welcomed spring –

the chance to slough off solitude,

absorb the warmth of friends and sun.

I pray, by taking pleasure in

these sights and sounds that lifted you,

we know today as you’d have done.

Published in Pennine Platform, No 82, 2017