Wednesday at the Hickory Chapel

Attending the funeral home
Which now seems so incongruent
I made a schedule change after
My father's call
Who has assumed the profound mantel of
Messenger of recent departures
And my high school friend
Fulfilled his role as the eldest child
And dutifully recounted
His mother's decline into
The dark, unjust halls of the mindless
Her Alzheimer's was only the first dying
As I have not seen them in almost 30 years
I cannot say if there were others involved
As I worked the room
With hugs and polite kisses
The smell of death descended again
And as I left the bland but well-lit building
The scent only lingered
I later recognized it as my own
The skin and bone I have shed and killed like
The snake-skin it was
I will not stay small
Oh the discomfort of
Sliding through holes
No longer safe
Or accommodating

dg

10/20/11

Sent from my iPad
http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

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