The Goodbye Ritual

On the night of the full moon last

I did the ritual —

I called the Powers to witness

my long-delayed, formal goodbye

to the dear man who has gone into my past.

Not that I could see the full moon.

It was utterly black, that sky —

not even pin-prick stars.

Heavy, relentless, the rain fell and fell.

Light would not pierce that veil, not soon.

So I came indoors,

and from far and high

I called them all —

the elements, the God, the Goddess —

into my bedroom, which used to be ours.

And there I said goodbye to my beloved;

a final, deliberate farewell

within a circle of sacred space,

watched by the moon’s invisible eye …

admitting at last that he is dead.

This form, invented by David James, is called Karousel

Poem submitted for dVerse OpenLinkNight #82

Published in THE d'VERSE ANTHOLOGY, 2013.