A Poem by Gretchen's Mother Julie...
I was reading a collection of Victorian epitaphs, and came across one for a 27-year old girl that threw me a curve, and got me thinking. So, I prefaced mine with the lines, and hope that it's appropriate:
Her only fault, what travelers gave the Moon--
'She cast a lovely light--twas gone too soon.'
Moonlight was her time, she slipped into its passing
Swallowed up into Earth's cruel embrace.
She leaped, my fearless girl, into the eclipse,
and gave us back the Moon, but lost her life.
My Gothic lunar Rabbit, I see her now
outracing paler stars, whose distant fires
are outstripped by her fiercer scarlet glow.
I often warmed my heart in her bright blazing--
In ashes now, I weep in lonely cold...
The Moon hangs like a pearl, her namesake gem--
The Ocean's jewel, sea-stone of matchless price.
My soul torn open, like that parent-shell
that gapes in plundered grief, when greedy hands
have snatched away the painful, precious prize.
(Though true, she chafed at times, I'd give my life
to feel her nestled close beneath my heart.)
Sea-water, now, the gems my tears are left
to sparkle, bitter in the Winter's night.
My only wish, my only hopeless dream--
To see my Rabbit dancing in moonlight...
for Gretchen, love Mom
Her only fault, what travelers gave the Moon--
'She cast a lovely light--twas gone too soon.'
Moonlight was her time, she slipped into its passing
Swallowed up into Earth's cruel embrace.
She leaped, my fearless girl, into the eclipse,
and gave us back the Moon, but lost her life.
My Gothic lunar Rabbit, I see her now
outracing paler stars, whose distant fires
are outstripped by her fiercer scarlet glow.
I often warmed my heart in her bright blazing--
In ashes now, I weep in lonely cold...
The Moon hangs like a pearl, her namesake gem--
The Ocean's jewel, sea-stone of matchless price.
My soul torn open, like that parent-shell
that gapes in plundered grief, when greedy hands
have snatched away the painful, precious prize.
(Though true, she chafed at times, I'd give my life
to feel her nestled close beneath my heart.)
Sea-water, now, the gems my tears are left
to sparkle, bitter in the Winter's night.
My only wish, my only hopeless dream--
To see my Rabbit dancing in moonlight...
for Gretchen, love Mom