Everlasting
By Margaret Lange, Coastal Dunes Branch
The service will be held
at the Greek Orthodox Church
at ten thirty she said but it’s on Greek time
so who knows, it could start at eleven or eleven thirty.
Yet it did start on time.
I didn’t know I needed
candles, incense, icons, and chanting.
I floated through to the end
when we took our turns
greeting the family. I touched the hands
of the daughter, looked into her eyes
and said, “It will get easier with time.”
Because it has. Grief recedes,
becomes a dull backdrop
instead of the glaring red couch in every scene.
With time, shifts occur, colors mute.
We are all travelers with time
constantly ticking off the days
in time, despite it all,
with all that is, was, and ever will be.