Light a Candle, Cast a Shadow
Your office is closed.
Your cell phone rings, but no one answers.
All of your causes, like Olympic torches
have been passed on, to other barefoot runners.
Their footfalls, fade, into the distance.
Your daughter, pauses, to look quietly
At your suits
Hanging, silently
With dust beginning to collect on their shoulders.
Your young children will begin their day
Tomorrow, without you.
Your death left them all behind.
Yellowing newspapers
detail a time of high promise
In stored boxes; no one knows
what might have been.
You honored your children,
You spoke truth to power at great cost
All your days
you fought for justice;
Now who will nurture the children
You left behind?
Written in memoriam for Elizabeth Edwards
December 7, 2010
cDeborah Sirotkin Butler
what a great homage
How incredibly sad that she was denied seeing her young children to adulthood and Cate married.