A living being become a memory.

This one thing once so frightened me,
the drastic change found only in a dream:
A living being become a memory.

The sudden, "Now he's gone," that shouldn't be,
the "he's no more" that prompts the wailing screams,
this one thing once so frightened me.

Over the years the deaths I've seen, I see
still showing, altering what seems--
A living being become a memory.

It hasn't changed, at all, no change for me--
what was, is not, yet is in scheme.
This one thing once so frightened me,

unfurled itself in nightmares hard to see,
a person changed to furniture in dreams.
A living being become a memory,

a thing become non-thing, unreal to me.
This one thing once so frightened me,
A living being become a memory.

(C)2008, Christos Rigakos