Elegy

So we were asked to write an Elegy in my creative writing class. An elegy is different from a eulogy, mostly because the first is a poem, but more than that, an Elegy is more a melancholic poem, not necessarily about a person who has died.

A Missing Friend

What can go wrong

In the life of a second grade child?

Life is simple,

Life is fun,

Until one day a friend stops coming to school

And the next day he is still gone.

Those days away turn into weeks.

Where is my friend?

The child will ask.

His answers are only sad stares.

Finally one day it happens.

The terrible task is left

To their teacher.

Normally bright and happy,

On this day she was quiet.

The young students sense something

Is wrong, but cannot comprehend yet

What awaits them.

The teacher paces,

The students wait,

Afraid of the tension

Without knowing why.

Unable to stand it,

The teacher breaks the news

Bluntly, shattering innocence forever.

“He died.”

The student who had stopped coming,

Had lost his little brother.

Comprehension came slow

What is death to an eight year old?

Nothing real, nothing that happens

To the people they know

The people they love.

Everyone knew that student,

And so everyone

Knew his brother.

They reacted in different ways.

One boy burst into tears,

And couldn’t be consoled.

The missing student’s best friend

Was numb.

He didn’t cry that day,

It still wasn’t real.

Not until he saw

His grieving friend again

Did the tears come.