Arundel

It’s
Larkin
Captures the detail
In the stone
That the couple’s hands are touching
Throughout what might be
The long life of
Statuary

Isn’t that the thing to
Leave
And who they knew the message
When flesh
Was intimate

The lord and the lady considering
The tomb
And a commission
To have their hands joined
After
Death

While
Uncommissioned
Beyond wedding vows
They had the life deserving
Of the clue
On the monument
For keep observers to be
Noting

And who knows
Maybe corresponding in their touching
As well
While on Earth
And promising celestial
Closeness
Too

Larkin’s message might be hard
(like
the stone)
Until the end
And it’s after I am thinking
Since his hands are in a posture too
Just now
And for how long
By bone
Or ash
There's knowing

C L Couch

a response to “An Arundel Tomb” by Philip Larkin
(can read at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47594/an-arundel-tomb)


Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash 
graves in Arundel