SUPPER WITH THE PhD
I sit across from my friend
and watch as he drowns
his well developed brain
Every day after work
he puts another million
brain cell kittens in a sack
and takes them to the lake
It is not for me to judge
This small death each day
may well have kept him from
the larger choice his father made
And a diminished capacity may help
when listening to the daily news
or hanging out with poets
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DEATH OF A THERAPIST (FOR JOAN)
“God in his mercy lend her grace”
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The Lady of Shalot
Even the camel
eater of straw
Cannot always reach
the one on his back
If we had been able to see
if she had been able to ask
Who would not have taken
a handful
to add to their lighter task
JUDY
Judy was a beauty
tall and blonde and shy
early this month she decided to die
The soft wise eyes, the curling lashes
all now ashes
We have been friends for twenty years
hugs and coffee when in town, cards when far away
And always the latest poetry
She said it was important, and it touched her
in places nothing and no one else could reach
Three years ago
I put my neck in a green eyed noose
I sent no cards, I did not call
I do not know if I could have saved her
though touch and poetry have been known to
I only know I hate what I did and didn’t do
I only know that she drowned out there alone
I only know it was a long time since I had thrown her a line
AUSTIN
My daughter Patricia
meets a young man in Austin
He tells her a story
about the time he decided to end it all
Walking home from buying the gun
he meets a woman on the street
She smiles at him as they pass
He throws the gun away
DARK EYED LADY
An instant connection
with richness and light
that’s deeper than centuries
and warmer than life
Though if death’s darkness
is as welcoming as this
no wonder people hurry
to sink into that bliss
And though I’m pretty sure
I’m not ready to be dead
I’d like to sit by those waters
and rest my weary head
And drop pebbles of my poetry
just to watch the ripples spread