Eulogy : A Poem

Here is another school assignment - to write a eulogy. I hoped to make it ambiguously meaningful, so try to figure it out before moving on to the "Explained" section... :P

Eulogy

That distant girl, in faded clothes

Marches behind the clouds of the dawn.

Her radiance masked by the dissonance between

Far are we from similarity,

But one we are, she- me, and I- her.

She whispers from the grave

Laid distilled upon the mantle

Captured in modest frames.

We have already met and goodbye.

There is another, she- us, and we- her.

She lies somewhere beyond, unknown, a stranger.

Her back to me, she walks away.

I don't know her, but she knows me.

And as I to the first, she has to me

Said goodbye, and left me be.

R Jazz Biel, ©2011

Explained:

"That distant girl, in faded clothes" - distant implies she is separated from me, and far away. The faded clothes represents the faded pictures of myself in the past, and that my memory is hazy. The girl is a younger me.

"Marches behind the clouds of dawn" - Dawn represents the 'new day' of today, and my former self is hidden inside yesterday, and the fog of time.

"Her radiance masked by the dissonance between,  far are we from similarity" - again, showing the distance in likeness and in time.

"But one we are, she- me, and I- her" - we are the same person

"She whispers from the grave" - talks to me and teaches me, lessons I've learned, etc.

"Laid distilled upon the mantle" - Distilled, as in I've taken the good things and left the bad. On the mantle, which has a double meaning, either ashes in an urn on the mantle, or pictures hanging on the mantle.

"Captured in modest frames" - again, meaning picture frames, or a coffin.

"We have already met and said goodbye" - I've met her, taken what I needed, and I've said goodbye when she died.

The next stanza talks about the future me, someone I don't know yet. Her back is to me, so I don't know what she looks like, but she knows me. The end means that just like the present me said goodbye to the past me, the future me will say goodbye to the present and past me. Although my former self is no longer me, because I've changed and grown, it still had an impact on my life, and I learned important lessons from her. But now, she has died and passed, leaving a beautiful legacy, which is me!