POEM FOR A GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN FRIEND

POEM FOR A GONE BUT
NOT FORGOTTEN FRIEND

The mind silent like
a whisper in
the still of night
you stiff like a mannequin
laid out in hospital gown
eyes fixed to ceiling
silent poems spinning in  your mind
weaving present into past
until you're back on the docks
lifting crates with hooks and beefy hands
waiting to clock out
hit Gino and Carlo's bar                                           
with other white cap longshoremen
young women eying your masculinity
tasting your loins
your head buried between
nectar sweet limbs
now lying in solitude
fluids not whiskey racing
through your veins

nurses pass your room
pay no notice
tubes in your nose
breathing labored
no longer the he-man
this is the way of life
the angel of death
no angel at all
but a minion from  hell

growing old was not supposed
to be like this
dreams reduced to confetti
fall slowly to the ground
stepped on or around

death waits like a sadist
spits in the wind
plays your mind
like a card shark
your breathing ragged
as a rat's claws

the hours pass at horse
and buggy speed
the bones bleed
death waits like
a faceless mugger
in the shadow
of the tattooed dawn

by AD Winans

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