(four for shw)

on hearing the news
of your impending
death, i am sick
to my stomach, allowing
an evening of confirmation
to travel cross-country
as i toss
and turn and awaken
to the finality
and it is finally
time for grief, you –
emptied of sickness
and we – refilling
of approved loss
.
20071007:1713


for everyone there comes
that day
when we will be carried
down
one flight, two flights, even
six flights of stairs
out of our homes and
into
the sun
yet
sunless, bodies
no longer
lives
.
20071010:1126


when everything works, we do not
question and rarely
wonder at the absurdity
of how, when
they unveiled your
liver and discovered
the most barbaric
decaying, we look
to our misshapened
hearts and reconfirm
our most secret
desires to continue
beating, waking
knocking our knuckles
against all closed
doors and keeping
the perpetually opening one
closed
.
20071010:1617


upturning death and
you, a deafening sorrow
summer’s ending shroud
.
20071010:1701
y