Paper lanterns,
Swaying gently in the breeze,
Light my way
As icy night replaces
Grey and friendless day.

Nebulous clouds above,
Inconsolable,
Quietly vent their sorrow
On the indifferent figure hurrying below
As, one day done, they contemplate
The morrow.

One frame from a life now snatched,
Clinical and detached,
I observe the scene:
Hastening and serene,
Rushing from, yet rushing to,
Is one day ever really through?

Stephen Tomkins
7 March 2015

Narita, Japan