The first death takes the life
And deprives us a simple touch
And a familiar laugh
To fill the spaces around us.

The second death suffers time
To create a widening rift -
Leaving one weeks - months behind
As in abandonment.

The third death is our memory -
What elements - what remnants
Hover almost perceptibly
But the mind fails to focus.

The final death is the loss of things -
A favorite - a souvenir
Broken into haphazard pieces
By a careless hand - forever.