The Finding of Emrys

 

The finding of Emrys, strapped

to his bed in death, recreated

the day like a lightning-bolt.

 

We shifted our shopping to one side -

silence being awkward, we muttered

hushed undertones of regret

lamenting a bleak life ended.

 

Yet he was undeniably risen and free;

the hemmed-in turmoil irresistibly over.

And over, the endless lonely meals

of white bread and chocolate. Now

his manna is broken in darkness or heaven.

 

We waited in the derelict third-world

destitution of his mud-walled cottage

for policeman and doctor to come -

and Emrys waited too, with the flagrant

unflinching patience of the dead.