Today I learned Dame Angelou died
She passed as it is said
Passed from this life closing notable eyes
finding sleep forever
Daybreaks
Day breaks
breaks
breaks our hurried pace
remind your own small heart
the precious hope the welcomed
gift of sound
Sound
Sound on paper
Sound from throats
sounds
sounds break our singular solace
remind our common hearts to rise
then fall, heave up, then down
a quicker pace
and memory then has more to lug around
other voices and voices of others reach
over and stuff each gift bag
the gift bag we call our mind
Deep or not
a small thin layer
the size of a postage stamp
micron thin invisible but brimming with understanding
it will no longer heave, rise and fall
it too melts away
This emotion, this patch of memory of how words felt
this too will no longer rise
this too with Dame Angelou has died
Foster Johnson
May 28, 2104