Time was when one, my life had flown,
(And her, Grandma, I’d hardly known).
Death had only one beyond life’s shore;
But alas, that time is no more.
2
Years tocked by before another,
(He was my only brother);
Left the living for the dead.
Seventeen years his tombstone said.
3
Two more of my grandparents died,
(Death had life again defied)
Before school days were through,
Grisly death was no longer “new.”
4
Uncles, Aunts kept slipping away,
(during college, and since that day)
Until death had taken them all;
Like the last leaf in the fall.
5
Now, only a few days go by,
(Death, you will someday die.)
Just a few days or weeks apart,
News comes, another did depart.
6
Now many I have known in life,
(Most in joy – OK, a few in strife.)
Have taken the flight up – or down,
To meet Heaven’s smile or Its frown.
7
What once was rare, an unknown thing,
(Death, you WILL loose your sting.)
Has become too well-known, of late.
Death, the caller at ever gate.
8
Death follows also on my trail.
(By “slow freight” or airline’s sail)
Sooner or later my friends will hear,
That death for me came near, too near.
9
And when that news shall quickly flow,
(You know how death’s tidings go)
God, in thy mercy, let my last flight be.
Upward, always to be with Thee.
– eab, Aug. ’99 (lost a new friend yesterday)
Separate-Holy 