Goodbye

Last night Andrew and I said goodbye to our little poppy seed.  We wandered down to a favourite spot by the canal that runs in front of our house, scattered some flowers on the water, and wept.  Andrew read this poem by Jane Tyson Clement:

Into the dark which is not dark

but only the light we cannot see,

reluctantly I let you go.

What was your source - children of years?

Surely I cannot claim your birth;

for when I found you, even then

you were not strangers to the earth.

I was privileged, to disclose

briefly, a portion of your days.

Now you are free - but not complete;

for none of us is this the end.

Somewhere the valley holds the mist,

the four fields shimmer in the haze,

the man of patience and the child

and the sea-eyed girl draw deep their breath

and live, and have no fear of death.

I wish you guys had been there.  Our little poppy seed's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.  But you weren't, so we said goodbye for you, joined by two guys behind us getting high on pot, and canal boats filled with tourists lumbering past...an Amsterdam goodbye for our Amsterdam baby.