ODE TO MIKE LONGE ESQ

Damning pictures I'm looking at!

I look and lo, with learned skill, the Undertakers undertake to lower the coffin in the grave.

In that coffin lies not Mike, our dear classmate, but his raiment on earth. No, nobody will bury Mike's ebullience! No, nobody will bury his charm! No, nobody will bury his timeless humour! They're hidden in our hearts.

I look and my head spins, for I know that, done with the Undertakers, the Overtakers' dream is rife. Soon, very soon, they'll take over the rewards of Mike's labour, for, as I look, Mike takes nothing with him. 65 years of toil reduced to mere memories. It rankles, I decide! O God, why do you design this realm merely for us to labour for others?

I look and hear a man wail, "So Mike is gone?" The answer is yes, but who dare utter it? It will not cease the tears of the questioner.

I look and lo, a comforting hand laid on the shoulder of Mike's widow. But who will comfort her in the dead of night when mourners retreat? God's Spirit, the Comforter, will. He never goes away if we know Him.

What is the colour of death?

Alas! The colour of death is grim.

Pray less for Mike, for nothing changes the destiny of the dead, more for his survivors, the living, for the colour of death is grimmest for the living.

Mike! Let God be honoured for a great life! I hear a fitting 21-gun-salute, not to Mike, for he hears nothing now, but to God, the Giver and Taker of life.

I look and lo, Mike's passage to eternity is graced by men, women, indeed, humanity of many colours, for a life of many bright colours Mike lived.

Life, after all, is one huge artwork. Every day, for what we've done, a mysterious hand with a deft brush adds a fresh stroke of paint.

Adieu, Barrister Sir Michael Adebayo Longe! Your painting is done, ours still in delicate progress. What shall we look like in the end? Only time and our deeds will tell, for as the unforgettable dirge reminds, "Fading away like the stars of the morning. Losing their light in the glorious sun. Thus shall we pass from the earth and its toiling. Only remembered by what we have done."

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