Ode to Will
by
Miranda Warburton
Written in Rarotonga, Cook Islands
February, 2003
Biting red hibiscus flower pounded to the ground by tropical rain;
Fans of coconut fronds subdued, captured, and tossed by salty gusts;
Droplets caught on the weather-worn wooden table wash away shared
memories and food stains.
Casuarina branches whip through the air with relief from strangling heat;
White caps beyond the reef struggle to overcome gravity’s fearsome hold;
White shell and coral beach cruelly scrubbed by stormy seas and mountain
driven winds.
Birds cry out as they catch another rain drunk insect;
Gray slate steps mirror a gray slate sky;
Melancholy and selfish sadness that my friend, who would have laughed with joy at
the beauty of nature’s fierceness, is now gone.
And shrouds of rain fall over the ocean.
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