Standing vigil for the dying

Standing vigil for the dying
Comes a time past rhyming when
There are no words to say

So weary and worn away
Are litany and commendation
Standing vigil for the dying

And no toil and no trying
Can yield them a worthy creation
There are no words to say

Then lexicons betray
They dawdle in the time of desperation
Standing vigil for the dying

When comes the time of crying
Unprepared are words of consolation
There are no words to say

All the time to pray
But waiting for the last amen
Standing vigil for the dying
There are no words to say.

Darkonian funeral prayer

Powers dark that no-one knows,
Hear our petition that you might
Now grant our dead their blessed repose.

Unending stillness now impose,
And rest unending, as is right,
O Powers dark that no-one knows.

In summer sun and winter snows,
In longest day, in Darkest Night
Now grant our dead their blessed repose

For peace beyond their dying throes,
For those that live, grant this respite,
O powers dark that no-one knows.

And as their sightless eyes we close
Accept, we ask, this offered rite
And grant our dead their blessed repose.

May liturgy and prayers and prose
Be satisfying in your sight,
Powers dark that no one knows:
Now grant our dead their blessed repose.

It was seven days delayed

I don't recall the last time I signed in
Before this afternoon. I should have known
That there would be a message in the bin,
Unanswered long enough to be a sin.
So, breathing tight and zeroed at the bone,
I clicked as though the message was a stray
And armed explosive shell. You were alone
And on the train, and missed me; on your phone
You said as much, and sent it on its way
A week ago.

I started to reply,
And wrote you all that I could think to say
Before remembering that half a day
Of time lag separated you and I,
Deleted my response and wrote a poem
To pass the time and let my sleeper lie.