Unscheduled departures

These were journeys
they did not mean to make.
This a sunrise
eclipsed within the hour
by a late, and sudden sunset.

For some, these were journeys
treasured in anticipation,
to destinations some would die for.
For others, just a way to work:
a daily, often dreary journey 
for which there are, now,
no more days.

No holidays, or holy days:
these Easter journeys, 
made routinely,
or in hope and expectation,
cross a too familiar path,
but without a second coming.

Anger serves no purpose
here in Brussels
On this grim and grey spring morning:
pity and hurt, of course, but mostly
shame, deep shame.
What we feel for such departures
can have no other name.


April 2016