POEM FOR A POET GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN


POEM FOR A POET
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN


the mind silent like a whisper
in the still of night
you stiff as a mannequin
laid out in hospital gown
eyes fixed to ceiling
silent poems spin in  your head
weave 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 eyed your masculinity
devoured your loins
your head buried between
nectar sweet limbs
now laying in solitude
fluids not whiskey
race through your veins

nurses pass your room
pay no notice
tubes in your nose
labored breath
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
plays your mind like a card shark
your breathing ragged
as a rat’s claws

the hour’s pass
at horse and buggy speed
the bones bleed

death a faceless mugger
does a two-step shuffle
like a gypsy woman selling her wares
in the shadows of the tattooed dawn





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