Memory and for memory and in memory

Unfinished Business for Chrissy Banks & i.m.Tony Charles
As I remember
and your dual texts always
and ever will
confirmThe Journal and Chrissy's poem Living Wanting to Live copyright Julie Sampson
there we were
sitting writing in black
somehow poetic osmosis I guess
we’d all agreed
beforehand
to dress as for a funeral w/rite
but then in a group of friends
someone has to go
first
amongst prosaic notes I jotted
the rimming of reflection
your and your
shadowed eyes
scratched out from
these garish hideous
exotic flowers
left in
waiting to be
stitched
or embroidered tightly
into a final wreath
Now nearly twenty years later looking for
something else other
past drafts
finding these
lines
how they pop-up
from the abandoned book
I understand why I was reluctant to share
I look at words you can not see
It is as then
I didn’t couldn’t know
the reason for this rite
though as I said
someone had to go
first others
left to bear the fruit
couldn’t know
we share a barrel of biscuits bottle of wine
still together the three of us
music breathing the clock
I closed the book
blacked its message
until now
when this poem heaves itself
from the sheaf of neglected notes
replete with a foretaste of grief
yet new the baby thrusts out its fist