The first death takes the life

The first death takes the life

   And deprives us a simple touch

And a familiar laugh

   To fill the spaces around us.

The second death suffers time

   To create a widening rift -

Leaving one weeks - months behind

   As in abandonment.

The third death is our memory -

   What elements - what remnants

Hover almost perceptibly

   But the mind fails to focus.

The final death is the loss of things -

   A favorite - a souvenir

Broken into haphazard pieces

   By a careless hand - forever.