HEROES

I am watching them from a distance.
Although it’s the first time I see them, 
I know that they are the HEROES 
With whom he went to dive.
They know I was his girlfriend,
And now, it is his funeral. 

We are at the cemetery, 
walking towards his grave.
Hard gravel crunches beneath my feet.
The place is crowded but I can’t see anybody.  
He is lying there on a stretcher. 
A white sheet covers his naked body.
 “I love you so much”, I say out loud. 
 Can anyone hear me now? 

I look at the HEROES again, 
They look back at me with fixed motionless gazes.
I try to decipher their sphinx-like faces:
What is the mysterious charm 
that made him follow them?
Or was it the deep Blue Hole 
that made him blind?

I see his two childhood friends hugging each other. 
 One whispers,
 “Why didn't I tell him that I loved him?”
 I can't close my eyes.

I am standing in front of the fresh tombstone,
And read his words carved in the black marble:
“The difference between knowing and understanding –
Is like the difference between heaven and earth”
I can’t feel anything.

I focus my eyes on the narrow black spaces,
The words disappear – 
Between the white letters 
I see a reflection, 
my head swirls,
From the polished stone
a HERO looks back at me.