Category: Death & Afterlife
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Oneirodynia
Disoriented, I wake stand at the kitchen sink For a moment, I feel as if I’m a child, again, living in Indiana, hunkered down, waiting for a blizzard, hoping they close school tomorrow But the wind doesn’t howl at my window tomorrow’s forecast is sunny and warm folks are hoarding sanitizer and toilet paper not…
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Junk thinking
Today, the city will come by for curbside yard waste I think I’ll bundle up pandemic fears and set them out there, too Don’t believe those Bible thumping divine retribution doomsayers An asteroid took out the dinosaurs NOT gay rights, abortion prayer in school, immigration the plague or a coronavirus This isn’t the world’s first…
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Daily news
at the street by your mailbox you lean your rake against the broken wall watch white blossoms melt from trees and listen to daylight talk about mortality 4-1-20
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Ornery cuss
He worked hard, drank beer fought a lot when he was young; loved his wife, loved his kids; never saw a dog he didn’t like. He drove a pale blue Chevy pickup windows down, his name neatly stenciled under his elbow on the driver’s door; it said, Albert W. Graul, Jr. Mascoutah, Illinois He liked…
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a monk on fire (for John Prine)
because I heard he may be dying I listened to hours of John Prine before I went to bed My wife peeked her head in my office told me an owl was hooting in a tree I never understood a hooting owl why they warned the night they would be up and hunting my Uncle…
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Crystal halos
(for an old college friend, Terry – stay well, my friend; I will see you on the safe side of summer) ‘Crystal Halos’ This morning, a bird woke me with insistent calls of “Pick me, pick me,” outside my window I sat barefoot on the porch watched light shimmy down from tree tops to run…
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Reading Bonhoeffer
a thousand times I died in books ___ every alternative seemed intolerable fanciful dreams waited for success ___ quiet and confident responsible people stood at a turning-point discernible in alternatives ___ nothing gracious or easy I grow closer everyday 3-23-20
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Hugging the shore
What of this devotion this becoming a shoreline to the motion of a river rushing to sea. No one lives forever; is love a preparation for our dying? Tell me the truth. I watched my father die breathing into the night he would die, his pacemaker kept restarting him Mom called out his name wet…
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In memory of my dear friend, Rabbi Gedalya Engel
sunrise gathering robins sing new beginnings savor Shabbat tea 3-14-20
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Questions I ask of a chair
Where is my friend? Did they leave? I came by for a visit, but they were gone. Are they sitting in the sun room? On a scale of one to ten, what was their pain level? Have you been following the coronavirus news? I’m more afraid of sepsis and staph infections. Why didn’t they finish…
