Gone Too Soon - A Poem For Gran

I guess you could say I'm handling it.

I still laugh, sometimes loudly,
Sometimes in a fit of giggles.

I still gaze up at the stars on clear nights
And marvel at the expansive universe.

I still snuggle with my kitties,
Adoring their silky coats and vibrating purrs.

I still eat my favorite chocolate, closing my eyes
So as to fully absorb the creamy sweetness.

But even so...

I still expect to find your letter in my mailbox,
The envelope covered in your near-illegible scrawl.

To see your closed hand resting on the breakfast table
As you eat your "scrumpy" cereal with banana slices.

To smell your Mushroom Roast and your Date Slices,
Your bathroom soap and your Yardley Roses spray.

To hear you saying, "I'm just going to have me tea,"
And, "Righty-o, then, Love."

And I can still see you in my mind's eye,
Waving from your driveway,
On tiptoe, arm raised high over your head,
As I drove away for ever.
And I know that you loved me.
And I know that, had you left me
In ten, twenty, or a hundred years' time,
You would still have been gone too soon.


-Skye Nightingale, 2006