One More Walk Through The Fields

For Paddy

One more walk through the fields
Where so ‘oft you would roam
Come nightfall , to neighbors
With their homes as your own
To speak of the seasons
Of the weeks and the days
No hour as a marker
For the parting of ways

And that sweet country song
Of the kettle’s slow boil
Its always welcome tune
Like the bell for each round
As all wrongs of the world
Where each taken in turn
To the bone , then re-built
And made right to the sound

Of laughter’s sure knowing
With wisdom in it’s wink
Of a kind only worn
‘Bout remembering eyes
Like the homage we pay
Come the hour of farewell
There speaks a voice seldom
An acquaintance of lies

The great irony of loss
Lies in where it’s light can fall
T’is sometimes slow , a hearts true shape
To shed life’s weathered skin
So ‘oft then while we travel
Those long miles of remembrance
A portraits true revealing
Will bitter -sweetly begin

And few would argue or deny
How your mem’ry wears this honor
A gentleman and a Lusmagh man
Always in ev’ry word and deed
Be kind and fair , when needed ; there
Be found as you would like to find
The legacy of your leaving
That you lived by this simple creed

So there by the kitchen table
We all circled that well-marked spot
Right by your chair , nearest the door
Where this world so ‘oft circled you
One room away , almost smiling
You slept your last hour ‘neath your roof
While we fought to steady our souls
For those moments hardly seemed true

Old friends and neighbors together
With no line at all between most
Share the weight of sudden silence
Your words again …would never fill
Yet ev’ry face harbored the trace
Of smiles born in your company
As all felt you there with us still

One last walk through the fields
One last ramble , then home
In the distance , a calling
Welcoming and well known
And a truth that outlasts
The passing of all days
Love knows of no marker
For the parting of ways.