Requiem
Our daily walk takes longer now.
But you still insist on
Passing through the cemetery
With its ever growing
Number of headstones.
You taught her grandmother
When we lived in Warrnambool
You tell me again. And his son,
You repeat, never returned from
The war in Vietnam.
And, as is our habit, we stop
To rest at the rotunda
Where, as usual, you turn
Away from the babies’ graves.
And I respectfully deflect
The trembling requiem.
- © Ray Liversidge 2020
Ray Liversidge’s latest book is Oradour-sur-Glane. He has also published two other books of poetry, a verse novel and a chapbook.
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