All Our Yesterdays

Life is oft spent waiting

For what tomorrow brings,

But when it comes with sorrow,

When all your life no longer springs

Or runs throughout the hallways,

When one more time your head will lie

Upon the safe, unmoving ground,

When every sleepy stretch and silent sigh

Has ceased to spawn your searching gaze,

I yearn for all our yesterdays

And wish to hold you one last time,

Before your spirit must rebound

To where a better peace is found.

But each today that grace has given

Will live with me my whole life through.

I’ll stand beside a windowsill

And find the breeze that called to you.

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for my family's cat, Slick, who passed away over the summer. This is the first of two poems I'm posting about him - one before Thanksgiving and one after. I wrote this poem almost immediately after he passed. I was in Uganda at the time, and the poem reflects some of my initial reactions to the news. I'll probably post the second poem next weekend.