To Dust We Settle

Dust has fallen,
Like a blanket pulled to rest
Upon a face in death.
A silent settling
That says to all, move on;
The life that was here has gone.
Even the light
Of a fiery sun,
Hides and shies away
At the motes of something more
Than simply time decayed.

A stilled-breath scene, a whispered tale.
A "Once upon another life",
A beauty death has paled.

And like a curtain,
Bequeathing to a watcher's heart
The actor's final bow;
What has been is living now,
In no more than memory.
Something lost;
A thing that was,
And again shall never be.