Monday, October 31, 2022

riopelle's "pavane": a monologue

 

we approach the age of

possible cures slowly

 

if we number the dead

we do it backwards

and starting at one thousand

 

two will be the person

you hold most dear and maybe

you'll never reach it

 

maybe you'll be forced to choose

 

a child or a spouse

or even a younger sister and

what happens is this

 

we make love

on the living room couch in

the coldest part of april

 

the sky is a gift from magritte

the houses on this street

somewhere between obsolete

and sinister

 

you ask me again how

my father died and i tell you again

that i don't know

 

he was alive and then

he was on the kitchen floor

 

he was hooked up to

competent machines and then

the machines were turned off

 

and it's here that

the baby wakes up

and the story is forgotten

until next time

 

it's here that the world of

barking dogs and ringing phones

reasserts itself

 

what goes left unsaid

is that no one has been saved


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