Taking Stock

This poem is dedicated to my friends, Sam and Lois.  Sam died after a brief illness June 15th, 2008.  He and Lois had been together for over 30 years.

Too soon—the idea of death

    too new to wrap your mind around it

Your body—

    confronted with the lonely bed

already understands the reality that

makes no sense to the brain

The closet—too soon

    don’t look

not to suppress knowledge, pain

    or acceptance

but to halt the flow of memory,

to hold on a little longer

to a life you are not ready

to relegate to the past tense;

you hunger to savor

that relationship as long as possible in the eternal now

So many cards,

    not ready for condolence—

hold the pain at arm’s length

yet a while

The story of a life

captured in names and return addresses

    every important event,

    every true friend

(and a few false ones, too)

represented in the roll call of names

collected in a box

You have cached these testaments to a life

    each name carrying a memory,

    each memory rising again

fresh and new,

no need to read

the stuttering prose inside—

it is this joint remembering

that is your consolation now