Lawrence Hall
Dispatches
for the Colonial Office
Graveside Service on a Blustery Day
“The old order changeth, yielding
place to new”
Tennyson, Idylls of the King
The widower assisted to his
place
Mourners in unaccustomed
dresses and suits
A bible, leaflets fluttering
in the wind
And gangly teens unsure what
they should do
February clouds roiling and
boiling
Even the officiant’s words
are blown away
Prayers lifted into silence
by the wind
They may have fallen by the
gravediggers’ tractor
Or were blown through the
leaning chain-link fence
Into the deeply darkening
Grendel-woods
But still – in back –
a boy and a
girl shyly touch hands
