Pause

Pause, originally uploaded by Neorelix.

Five thousand four hundred and sixty seven miles away from Cambridge a man shuffled off this mortal coil last night. A Man I never met. In the ICU of a San Diego hospital, emptied of vitality by a lifetime of alcohol and kicked whilst down by lung cancer, his body followed where his mind had gone a couple of weeks before.

At New Year's I stood at his bedside in intensive care and saw for the first time my past, and a future. I still have not met my father but I have said goodbye; and hello in fact. I'm sorry he has gone.

The fiercest manhood,
the toughest reserve, the slickest wit amongst us
trembles with silence, and burns with unexpected
judgements of peace.

Les Murray
An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow