Day of the Funeral

Much essential knowledge comes later.
Today I learn camellias were your favourite flower,
you'd had a gift for cultivating them.
Here in your garden, a slight wind
makes its unobtrusive claim on us.
Far above, vast gatherings of birds
dissolve and resurrect their bodies' density,
shape patterns out of separateness,
infolded by a universe of air.
They cannot shadow us, or eclipse the mild sun.
In this cavern of roots and branches,
we are drawn into Memory
which codes itself inside heartbeat,
dwells in the spaces between us.