The
Long Process Of Dying
my
father complains the pinched nerve
in
his back has caused his left leg
to
fail him & he is falling down
so
I advise him to call the Scooter Store
&
when he asks me to explain
I
say, "if you're sitting in a scooter
you
won't fall as far"
the
long process of dying
begins
before the diagnosis
when
my father tells me
he
has been diagnosed
with
Lou Gehrig's disease,
he
says, “now if I get cancer
at
least I won't ever feel it”
I
remember when I was a kid
I
asked my father if he had killed
anybody
when he had fought
in
Europe during World War II
he
said, “I don't know
every
time I pulled the trigger
I
closed my eyes”
my
father & I reminisce
about
roughhousing together 40 years ago
my
father says,' my arms & legs
have
gotten so weak I don't think
I
can beat you up any more”
my
father says,
“Death
won't find me easy to catch
it's
just that I can't move too fast”
but
the long process of dying
does
not last so long as we expect
food
debris suddenly causes pneumonia
&
my father's lungs fail as he sleeps
hours
after admission into a California hospital
I
guess one has no chance to run
when
Death employs its blindside maneuver
when
my mother died, my father
said,
“if there is a heaven
your
mother is there”
now
in paradise my father may live to see
the
Chicago Cubs win the World Series at last
now
my father's body has been burned to ash
&
nothing remains in the radiant silence except love
Black
Hole President
as the bombs
fall, the President becomes a black hole sucking in & obliterating
all the joy we might find in the world as he appears on national
television claiming that no one on our planet will be safe until
we seize control of Iraq & strip it of its weapons of mass
destruction. . .the news reports begin to flow over all the
available information networks that hundreds of Iraqi troops
are surrendering to the American-British coalition rolling towards
Baghdad with little opposition & I wonder why Saddam Hussein
has not used any of the weapons of mass destruction George W.
Bush claims that he kept hidden from the United Nations inspectors
who were evacuated from the country several days ago. . .in
36 hours, the vast majority of deaths & casualties suffered
by Coalition forces have been the result of mechanical failures
or friendly fire &, as I transcribe these words into my
computer while the television provides me with the information
I am shaping, I wonder why Saddam has failed to terrorize our
troops with any of the dangers George W. Bush claims that he
embodies & I wonder how many Americans will realize that
the only side involved in this conflict possessing weapons of
mass destruction that present a danger to planetary & security
peace happens to be us. . .despite the left-wing bias dominating
the American media, none of the television analysts have bothered
to mention that our quick progress would seem to indicate that
the objective of disarmament must be, at least in part, a fiction,
nor has it been noted that seizing control of Iraqi oil fields
would appear to have been a higher priority than locating the
secret underground bunkers where Saddam's weapons of mass destruction
no doubt have been hidden since it would be unthinkable to suppose
that our President George W. Bush has been lying to us because
he needs cheap oil in order to ease our long-term recession
if he wishes to ensure his re-election, if he wishes never to
hear his mystery opponent campaign on the slogan "it's the economy,
stupid". . .this black hole President along with joy sucks in
& obliterates all common sense & logic leaving empty
heads in his wake, heads that ask if we have discovered where
Saddam has been keeping the weapons of mass destruction he would
not let the United nations inspectors see & when these weapons
will be unleashed against our troops, no head asking if these
weapons might happen not to exist at all. . .