I took the photo of this graveyard the day my siblings and I placed Mum’s ashes next to Dad’s. As you can tell, this is an older graveyard, much like many others to be found on the grounds of small chapels dotted around the state of Tasmania, Australia. As fate would have it, the gentleman who married my parents is also buried in this same cemetery, and his headstone stands close to where Mum and Dad’s ashes are interred. I often thought of the character Stefan from my urban fantasy novel, “A Secret Muse,” whenever I walked around the grounds, perhaps because my father loved, and also wrote, poetry. The stillness of death and rebirth, is a line from the poem I wrote for Stefan, in which he expresses his profound love for his wife. I think perhaps my father whispered the poem to me, it feels like something he would have written for Mum.

For Prudence…

One taste of thou and life’s burdens lift,

Sorrows fade into joy and my youth is restored.

Thine breath against my skin and my heart is quiescent.

A tender touch and the withered sinew that

girds my wretched soul is hallowed.

I bethink the wisdom born from this dance of life,

The stillness of death and rebirth,

Fairest nymph,

Beloved rose,

My divine Prudence.