The Cremation of Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Louis Édouard Fournier (France), 1889.

West Wind

“Lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud…”
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”)
We let the west wind take his remains.
Gentle, she bore each flaming ash skyward
to burn with momentary brilliance
then vanish like an unremembered word.

And in the end, there was little left–
an unremarkable band in black
who mourned in minor voices
and the west wind
who did not pause to grieve.

Steve Deutsch

This was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge.

Steve Deutsch, a semi-retired practitioner of the fluid mechanics of mechanical hearts and heart valves, lives with his wife Karen–a visual artist, in State College, PA. Steve writes poetry, short fiction and the blog stevieslaw@wordpress.com. His most recent publications have appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, New Verse News, Silver Birch Press, Misfit Magazine and One-sentence poems.
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