" Chatter "
Silmaril's Chatelaine
October 19th, 1994     ~      January 31st, 2003.
 

' The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
 the more joy you can contain.
 Is not the cup that holds your wine
 the very cup that burned in the potter's oven? '

Kahlil Gibran

Eulogy
 

We think of  " Chatter's "  life as untimely brief,
But this existence of ours, is as transient as autumn clouds.
To have watched her birth and death was like looking at lightning
Her lifetime was a spectacular flash of light in the darkened sky.
Brief but memorable.   Her life . . . our lives
Rushing by like a torrent down a steep mountain.

Why grieve the brevity of the fireworks, that she was ?
Bursting suddenly on the scene with the report of a canon !
Her life, sudden sprinkles glittering in the celebratory sky.
And the sudden BANG ! and multi-coloured sparkles drifted downward.
She was gone.  Her life . . . our lives
Like an evenings fireworks, spectacular and all too soon done.

So on the solace of a winter eve, staring at a darkened sky,
The sudden impact of our lives illuminating and so quickly gone.
Winter winds whisper her name and legacy, eulogy of bonded kinship !
A starry vigil; twinkling souls with primal thoughts of  beauty and of brevity.
We are gone.  Her life . . . our lives
Mistaken estimates of our existence, by length rather than intensity !
 

Richard G. Stopps
[Originally penned for a  Dear Friend's lost Staffordshire Terrier - "Lottie"]