I will not say do not weep - for not all tears are an evil.

I want to say something about Cyrus that would make you twist with tears.
Our regal brother...

I am remembering the night I lay on the floor with Cyrus Lebo for the first time. He had already been a Lebo for many years.
I was slow to love him...this is a sin...today such delay in my appreciation of Cyrus feels like an evil.
For many years I cringed at the thought of touching his belly.

I was lucky you see because in a language without words, Cyrus is also called Cyrus The Forgiving. That night on the floor he embraced me
when he heard I was near, and crying.
Overhead of us, credits were rolling.I had just seen Waking the Dead, and the house was empty except for us.
When I say he held me, I mean he literally
embraced me right there, there down on the floor.
My face was on the berber and he looked at me.

For this I will always be grateful.

Cyrus met you at the door when you came back from being away and he would talk to you. Again, he forgave you and your absence. He would ask you about your travels. Say, what was your favorite beer? Who did you meet. Will you be going away again, tell me the answer is no.
When I say he spoke, I really mean that he did, with intonations and syllables and subtle gesticulations of his mouth and eyes.

Yesterday, mom and dad and sister encircled him, and I was not there but they were with him on the floor, all together. He was on a blanket and he looked at them, he gave and he got love, and then his travelling shoes were laced in a double knot. He boarded the great grey ship and underneath that fur, he became cold.

His like will not be there again.