The death knell sounds and echoes round  
the confines of the burial ground 
The tolling bell seems to foretell. 
Life will become a lonely hell. 
 
My love is gone, she’s travelled on,  
 her race is run and she has won. 
No longer bound by gravity  
she’s earned her wings and she is free. 
 
By sadness I am overcome. 
I am struck dumb, completely numb. 
I cannot cry although I try. 
The wellspring of my tears run dry 
 
The mourners murmur quietly  
but no one comes to comfort me. 
This does not come as a surprise. 
They do not seem to realise 
 
The love I bore for her was true. 
We were a partnership we two,  
which lasted over thirty years. 
I wonder why nobody dares 
 
To offer me their sympathy 
a little sensitivity.  
But they still show they disapprove. 
They do not understand that love. 
 
Between two women is as real  
as the emotions which they feel. 
But then her mother chooses to 
 do what the others dare not do. 
 
She comes to me and takes my hand  
and says my dear I understand 
You loved just her as much as I  
it is appropriate to cry. 
 
The courage which she chose to show  
allowed my pent up tears to flow 
When she acknowledged publicly 
  what her daughter had been to me. 
 
22-May-08 
 
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ivor or ivor.e hogg
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/acknowledgement-5/