Remembering Sharif

 

You were enduring as a tree,

your heart as wide as Africa.

I remember the autumn day

you shook the garden apples down,

heaped in a golden hail,

delighting neighbour children. Then

we could not know your pain.

And how with all your strength

shielding the innocent, you shook

your own life’s tree, and left

a golden child behind.

​