Evocation #43 voice

The strength of your voice rings in my soul - especially today.
You kept the list for this day...
Sing to your brother-in-law...
Grieve the land and the invasion...
Honour the servicemen and women who have given of themselves for us...
Celebrate the diversity of our community...

I spent today with friends, on good country,
Singing and sometimes dancing,
Missing you every moment
and honoring your desire
to contribute to this country.
You so loved this land.
This land gave birth to you
and to this land
the dust of your body will return.

As we make plans for the pilgrimage to come,
The daily tears beckon,
Reminders of freshness and the discovery
of what it means to learn aloneness.
It is not singleness,
for your strong voice in my soul
And your ring on this chain
do not leave me single,
but they do point to
the aloneness
that frames my days
And nights.
It is not loneliness,
but absence -
As if you had simply stepped out for a time.
Whereas, I know,
You have stepped out of time
into some other state,
no longer bound
to this sense of day or night
or week or month or year.

I sang for you today,
joining my voice
with the sisters you loved so much.
They were kind and blessed me...
And, by extension, you.

(C) A A Koh-Butler, 2020