This title is from Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black . 

Martin you could not of course

but you should have

seen it, the wind turned to

frozen thorns when your coffin

kissed the earth, they drilled

leprous holes in my arms

and the children all said

Mama please don’t Mama please—

but Friend where are you

I done searched the bellies

of stars and storms for your

miraculous voice I done walked seas

and seas of crippled night to hear

the songs of your touch and... 

Friend of Mine when the dirt covered

your coffin crowds fainted

in the streets and up on hills

of their souls our children sang

“I’m goin’ up yonder, I’m

goin’ up yonder to be with

my Lord, ” but not without me

I’d always thought. Oh my Soul,

why you wanna go so far without me

but the most wondrous

thing, the kind of wondrous thing

that amazed you most, was

the sun gushing blood all over

my bereaved life while the preacher

said such nice true things about

you he must’a thought

he’d made them up, I recalled

as he spoke the early days

when we burned like two summers

in the shade of our hearts, I recalled

days of swimming bare-skinned

in the waters of each others’

freedom-hungry minds and even now

a cloud is coming yonder dripping bones

over my bones it is the kind

of wonder that amazed you most

oh dear good Martin, call me to where

you are please I long to show it to you.

--Aberjhani

© 1/31/2006