In loving memory of my father (9.11.1958 - 6.15.2012) and my grandfather (2.07.1934 - 12.11.2012).
The dead are always looking down on us, they say,
while we are putting on our shoes, or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven
as they row themselves slowly through eternity.
They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
and when we lie down on a couch or in a field,
drugged, perhaps, by the hum of a long afternoon,
they think we are looking back at them
which makes them lift their oars, and fall silent,
and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes.
Billy Collins
