The last night I saw you,

You let down your silk curtain

Gracefully spinning in circles

Like the gold orb of an angel’s halo

Unlike an angel, your protection was uncertain

But you were brave as a lioness, and stood strong

You didn’t lose grip of you silk, you held on

Beautiful lioness, look out for the godless ring master

In his hands, he holds a deathly cancer

I suppose there was no escape for you auntie

The ring master hit you with his whip

Tried to tame you, but stopped your heart instead

Even though we prayed to him, you still ended up dead

That night the hospital was like a circus,

The sky showered us with your silk strands

I thought of how I’ll never get to hold your hand

But I learned that life and death are not too far apart

Life can be taken from us before it can start

We gazed below the ground and watched as

Silk fell upon your exquisite lifeless face

Through the blur of my tears I thought, “Life is

A circus. It is nothing but a big disgrace.”

But my aunt’s spirit of the graceful aerialist and brave lioness

Whispered into my ear as I silently cried, “Are you okay?”

I contradicted my thoughts and realised

We only get this one life, and that life can end tomorrow or today

As hard as it has been to accept

That my aunt passed away

I learned something from being upset,

Sometimes one must lose another to learn the values of life

And that one day everything will fall into place and be okay