(Past-Due)

February always finds you folding

Local papers open to the faces

”Passed away” to wonder what they're holding

In those hands ​we're never shown, the places

Formal photographs refuse to mention

His tiny feet, that birthmark on her knee

The tyranny of framing our attention

With all the eyes their eyes no longer see

And darkness comes too early, you won’t find

The many things you owe these latest dead

A borrowed book, that cheque you didn't sign

The tools to be bereaved with, be beloved

Give what you can: to keep, to comfort this

Plain fear you can't extinguish or dismiss