for shaun

numbers and letters

how they fail to convey

the depth of your night

the glow of your day

a name and a date

how utterly incomplete

a draft of the story

of your fall at my feet

‘he will be missed’

a rhetoric refrain

imparts to us not

your joy nor your pain

below, at the bottom,

matthew seven verse one

lies to us all

in the sweltering sun.