Elegy For Tom Bowen

Psalm 39:11

When with rebukes you correct man for iniquity,
You make his beauty melt away like a moth;
Surely everyman is vapor.
Selah


Elegy For Tom Bowen


We watched him melt away into vapor,
Like a moth at the window
Here and then gone,
For transgression and iniquity
Fueled his latter days,
Even so he is still a sojourner,
Though he walks about like a shadow
Though he keeps from speaking
Even the truth,
Still he always walked in a certain light,
A light no one but him could see
Or understand,
He saw the beauty of a single snowflake,
Laughed at the owl caught in the grill
Of a ’56 Crown Vic,
Put on his Beatle boots
So he could chat up the next bird
That flew into town,
His heart beat hot within him
When he laughed and then became serious,
Feeling the fiery breath of God
Calling him to his journey,
Where were we when he eventually left us?
When we became strangers to him,
When we could not hear his silent tears,
When he finally took his gaze from us,
Went away,
And was no more?