I
that final summer
we spent our nights on the pier, the moonlight
bathing the water with its cool hands. night sounds,
frogs humming and burping, crickets, and water
slapping rocks serenading us.
long hours lost in eternal
embrace, caresses without end, daylight
hours, too, passed
in hide-and-seek cornfields.
ski trips and trains
marked our passing. long drives
were our companion,
after hour coffee shops our friend.
II
it was our times
spent past the old mill
I miss most. the water wheel spinning
much like us
as we rolled
down the hill, locked
in each other’s arms. sitting
on the old stone bridge
dangling our bare feet
in cool water,
life as bright as the face of God.
III
then there were the dark days, days
when you were ill,
too weak to walk, move,
smile for even me. my tears
salted your skin.
A cadaver still breathing:
Skin pulled tight across your bones, gaunt, your ribs protruding like a witch’s clutched fingers
Your eyes sunken into your skull, clouded with pain, a Vesuvius eruption
Your once strong arms, limp, tree limbs fallen under ashen snow
A cadaver still breathing, labored and heaving until—
And to mourn? Selfishness for myself; the pain
you have been saved—the agony of existence
you have been freed from the snare of barbed wire
in your lungs, and the red on white
of frothy blood expelled from your lungs after your last breath…I still kissed
your lips
goodbye
my existence is stitched with torn fragments of you
my life burns with your memory
I warm myself here
