Thomas

It's a long time ago
it was a Sunday then
we found you
on the floor

No more jumping
on to chairs
but you had clung on
behind the curtain

The months before
had seen you decline
to a shadow
of your former self

Looking for
darkness
to lessen
the darkness to come

The evening came
and yours also drew
to a final
and everlasting close

I was speeding west
when your spirit overtook me
and the message on arrival
was that you had gone

For fifteen years
you were one of us
and never forgotten
although now gone for 26 years.

Thomas, spring 1973 - 29 May 1988