Mimi's Grandfather.
(Normandy)


Slipping from the inverted turtle's shell
his helmet bobbed
- a water beetle.
Straps mimicked spiny legs
as it paddled away
awkward
to escape the taint
of vis vitae.

Liquid poppies bloomed
and he sank within them
frame
by
frame.
These flowers
contaminated his grave.

But blood in water
speaks with a short lived voice.
The eulogy diluted, then silent;
until again only water
mocking his mortality
by way of its own
endless fluidity.

©1999