THE RETURN
(in memory of T S H)
I
We would have you return unimpaired,
Mortal as the evening sun, feeling
No hiatus in the day's pursuit.
What Light remains is ours, Eric will assert.
So the simple thought of death,
Though besieging, is elegant.
We live; we die.
Be certain that alone, the flesh
Augurs less than memory, fellowship,
The metaphor of waves quarrelling upon
One imperious curve of Dungun beach,
Or a patch of moonshine sharpened
By the gibbon's sudden midnight call.
We live; we die.
At Jemaluang an obsessed leopard's claw
Marked a tree with the full angry power
Of death and yet it blooms. Below
Cleansed of blood, the stream's pure
Speech still feeds the colours of the fish,
The saving tremble of earth, moon, stars.
The years swiftly made us brothers
More than most -- sharing kopi aliah,
The occasional discontent, the open road,
Talk of politics, a ministering culture,
How Simon, Julian, Raymond seek to grow
As Four Horsemen skirmish, ride their turn.
The mind's geometry learnt to feel,
Grow intricate, uncovered runes
And patterns as we talked across this issue,
That problem. Ideas were theorems we
Moved around the circles of our hope,
Our city, people, coming history.
We live beyond the body's season.
As you know, my brother.
II
Evening is for remembrance.
The light breaking upon leaves
Is yours. The tears are yours.
We hear again, your soft
Moving in our thoughts,
Uncompelling, whole.
At One-Tree Hill you balanced
Each greeting with a grin,
Poured us Cecilia's coffee, talked wine,
Your Mother's coming visit,
A missed Angkor trip, the political weather,
While orchids by the balcony bloomed.
One evening the moon rose
Upon a gathering of friends,
The double talk, the puns.
Some limped, others soared....
While the evening fell asleep,
Sweetly uncaring. Such images remain.
We live; we die.
There will be moments
When we hear your heart speak
Through its metal valve,
Making us wonder how your body,
Blood, nerves, mind held so against
The promised dissolution.
We live; we die.
Your ashes lie before us
In the spectrum of this day.
We are consoled knowing
There is a covenant
Beyond the body's season.
Edwin Thumboo
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