Not Me


Sitting Alone


Staring out to sea, is it the horizon he watches?


The sun how it sets?


He sits and he stares with a look in his eye.


A look so sad, so alone, just staring out to sea.

 

‘Are you ok?” I ask slowly moving by his side


He beckons me to sit on the sand a while, as he stares out to sea


Not at me.


He’s an elderly man, on a vacation he had planned


Months ago with his wife, the love of his life


She too loves to sit and stare at the sea



It’s their anniversary, fifty years of wedded bliss


She loves jewels he says, now holding an ornate box in his hand


Gently and lovingly he caresses it, as he stares out to sea


Not at me



From far away they came, running from the cold


To the island of paradise where the sunset is gold


He looks at the box a smile on his face


Staring out to sea


Not at me



He smiles ever so slight


for that second as the golden ball sets


He squeezes the box and on the horizon the green light flashes


He opens it gently and in the waves, spreads her ashes.


A tear down his cheek, staring out to sea

Not at me

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Graham Bannister is a member of the group “League of Extraordinary Poets “ (LXP) in Barbados, where he also engages as a Spoken Word artist. He has been recognized with a 2012 NIFCA award for his prose.
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