for Rosemary - we remember

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember

My mind had turned to Rosemary unexpectedly
Out of the dark she came and paused centre stage
She seemed to wait for someone or something uncertainly
I sensed a tide of sadness washing over her, almost drowned
Wraith that she was, etched in my memory.
Wonder why it is that she is calling me,
Things undone holding her trapped
Between the place beyond and where she would like to be.
Well I remember how she graced the stage dressed in shining green
She smiled and dipped graciously – lady-in-waiting to the Queen
Consummate courtier, make believe for her came easily
Reality was not a place she would always choose to be.

There’s Rosemary, standing on a corner, going nowhere,
This time she sprang to mind as though I’d just
Found her, standing wondering which road to take.
It’s not the sadness of before, the memory of yesteryear,
There’s something unfinished, some decision she has to make
Before she can turn and dissolve into the eternal night.
What things and times gone by and not fulfilled
Keep her sadly wandering here
Forever caught in the place between present and past tense.
Somehow we need to set her free, let her go
Leaving the domain of wraiths and ghosts and the echo
Of what might have been, drifting slowly, away from here.