There was a man dying by the side of the lake
kids fishing from rocks
barely noticed him bent and grey
slumped in this sad moment
hands clutching at the tide
as white tipped waves churned past him
he was moaning in the grass as everything
he had been fled into dark clouds
sirens echoed through suburbia
rain fell in a sudden burst
he was altogether gone
by the time they reached him
a gull stood hunched and morbid in the rain
I let the weight of raindrops
close my eyes and finger my hair
trees and leaves dripped with loneliness
the lake lapped round our hollow faces
plastic tape rustled in fierce wind
like a prayer flag to some deity
days later the grass stayed flat where he had lain
as if a weight of unbearable heaviness
had kept some agreement with the earth.