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.
Years tocked by before another,
(He was my only brother);
Left the living for the dead.
Seventeen years his tombstone said.
Two more of my grandparents died,
(Death had life again defied)
Before school days were through,
Grisly death was no longer “new.”
Uncles, Aunts kept slipping away,
(during college, and since that day)
Until death had taken them all;
Like the last leaf in the fall.
Now, only a few days go by,
(Death, you will someday die.)
Just a few days or weeks apart,
News comes, another did depart.
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.
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.
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.
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, 8/29/99
Separate-Holy 