i. the eternal joke of life
(im)mortality is a bad joke the universe tells us
over and over again
the set up, always, one of the three:
(a) some version of complacency
(b) a prolonged sense of security
(c) an implicit belief the human experience can be one devoid of conclusion.
then the punchline:
ending,
too often abrupt, and sudden,
and -
on occasion it is a slow build:
it is a stroke on tuesday,
it is your last phone call with your son (my dad) on friday
it is dead by sunday,
before you can dress up in your church best and go to mass that morning.
back to dust you return.
YOU ARE READING
that corpse you planted last year in your garden, has it begun to sprout?
PoetryA poem about the loss of my grandmother, in seven parts.
