I met an codger leaving church one day
Arrested by a yawning toothless smile,
His face a raisin, eyes of sunken grey,
His wizzed body cocked against a stile.
You do not know me, but I know you, he said
In soft and gentle tones I seemed to know;
A sense of burden in his face I read
And he continued in a whisper low.
In the graveyard stands a blank faced stone
Ahead a mound, but no words written there,
I placed it so for you when you were new born
And have maintained it with the greatest care.
Are you the reaper?! I blurted out in fear;
A messenger— your epithaph’s unclear.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.