"Are you sleeping sounder now?” The people ask me still.
I do not presume you died to cause me pain;
Lovers don't.
15,396 days, sharing in the complicity
of togetherness.

Our first night you sat enwrapped in my arms
after dancing,
in front of a banked fire in the complicity
of togetherness.

I remember not of what we spoke
that night
But only that we talked in the complicity
of togetherness.

15,396 days later, we exchanged 
a few words
until your words and life
ran out,
your body stilled in the complicity
of loneliness.

                                   6 December 2023