When the Chain Is Broken

Matter is neither created nor destroyed—so the scientists say;
the chain of humanity seems to lose a link.

A loved one makes a last transition
to a place beyond our sight.

But the chain is unbroken,
for we live and die in a continuum

of ancestors who shall never die as long as one remembers
their names, their accomplishments, their joys.

When loved ones are no longer on the earth,
they are of the earth and with the ancestors.

They are present in the bloom of the flowers,
in the leaves of the trees,

and the sound of the thunder echoes their names,
while the flash of the lightning

illumines all who remember the essences of their presences
and recount the wonders of The Supreme Being’s gifts.