Our Separate Ways
To Isabel Cecily Dowling
We cast lots for you today
We let the scrabble letters decide
who should treasure the bits and pieces
slowly gathered to make your lodgings
Less bare
We all wanted the ring:
A lifelong closeness to you
never lost, forgotten, or surrendered,
(though you swelled and shrank),
The prize
Tomorrow we go our separate ways;
our fulcrum - your memory.
Perhaps as we live our allotted span
the years will show you were all
that connected us.
Perhaps not
The need to speak of you,
forever fresh, the real treasure
We share
We cast lots for you today.
Symbols, prizes
Keeping you alive.