OCTOBER 1980

Brotherly Love

My brother's dead,

My brother's dead,

I held his hand,

I stroked his head,

I asked him not to leave me yet,

Though I knew he had already,

I was talking to the empty shell,

Of the man I used to know so well,

Who had so much more to show and tell,

And who clearly wasn't ready,

But not a word, can he say now,

Not a sigh, not a breath, can he take now,

And all the arguments we had,

All the good times and the bad,

They echo in my head,

Every day now,

My brother wasn't always good,

He made mistakes, he misunderstood,

He thought that death defy he would,

As do we all most daily,

And when the lights begin flickering

When the picture falls from the wall again

Though when I look there's nothing there

I can't help feeling he's somewhere

Between the worlds

Still interfering

And after all is said and done,

The phone calls stop and the world moves on,

Where once his star so brightly shone,

Now that light is just a feeling,

The seasons turning, the planets spinning,

The candles burning, the angels singing,

The kind of things we do and say,

When our loved ones pass away,

It's not the end,

It's the beginning...

Remember this: we do not stay,

The purpose is: no-one can say,

Where we're from and where we go,

I guess we're not supposed to know,

And though I still think he'll be back any day,

My brother's gone,

Enough's enough,

His hopes his dreams,

And all that stuff,

And as below,

Then so above,

Let all that's left be love.