in memoriam Patrick Chamberlain
I still don’t recall the weather then,
Only that it was October after
You were done with yourself and all
That was left when the wake had blurred
The absence of light was the event reduced
To murmurs, confusion, phone calls, photographs
That barely insinuate how you sounded when
Drunk and reeling in harmony we sang
In the few hours before sunrise. On stage,
Singing sweetly so that no one would ever
Leave you alone, how you believed the sound
Of your songs would still the crowd : for you,
A desperate act of love played against noise
Never drowned out, become so deafening
It exploded into silence.