One+last+goodbye*

Driving west, into the dying light The sun's golden tears flooded into my eyes I was too late to hold her; too late for one la-a-ast goodbye

It seemed so long since she'd been free Peering out from her room with goldfish memories Always with strangers; almost a stranger to me

She had already flown away She had already flown away

In her final room, the lamp light was low Her skin had settled, smooth on her bones I reached out to touch her - her forehead cold and hard as a stone

Bridge

Like a thief in the night I thought I felt the room breathe as I searched for clues I waited for my tears to start falling but I was stilled by the calm that filled the room

There in the night, I thought I felt heaven's sound All suffering over, all burdens laid down For everything lost it seemed some deep, perfect truth had been found

She had already flown away She had already flown away media type="custom" key="27811047"

In the white, polite room, we stared in the box I barely recognised her at all A vaguely familiar waxwork that makes you look twice in Madame Tussaud's

The stories we told searched for who she had been An immigrants' daughter hockey stick teen Office girl filmstar sitting on her airforce boy's knee

all awl ball bore boar bawl brawl befall call core claw craw crawl drawl door fall four floor furore fore gall gore hall haul jaw mall more maul appall poor pall roar tall thaw thought install war wall yawl yore it seemed some weight fell away/had been shed No more need she suffer / The vale of tears stories we told searched for who she had been Immigrants' daughter hockey stick teen Office girl filmstar sitting on her airforce boy's knee

brown bound clown crown down drown disown found frown profound ground gown hound mound noun pound plough row round sound astound town vowel wound We stood round her box Shy girl in a filmstars glasses Sheep shit on her rolled up trousers Twenty and bold a writer of letters her peace seemed/silence profound A gardener's daughter her mother a maid

We were too caught up in wishes to know or to see Too lost in

up all night holding/calming a drunken boy's fear

All the letters she'd written; every little detail of a all the The photos around her A shy

The photos around her

Her stillness spread out like My emptieness filled up with the

In the final room, in the soft gentle glow Like a thief in the night, I search for her ghost I reach out to touch her and know that I'm here all/truly alone

It seems so long, since she's been here Her emptiness now, so free/no hint of fear I walk in trembling; end up still/calm

her stillness

choose clues

I am left/here all alone, like a thief in the night