A Fellow Poet Wrote Her Obit In 2020
She said that the stars were listening.
She said that her gift was a curse
but that was four years ago.
She said that she hoped
we would understand.
She added that she was proud
that her daughter had a child
but daughter had stopped speaking with her/
She never mentioned a date
or possible cause of death.
This summer, four years later
she told a friend she’d been drinking
since her boyfriend died of cancer.
She said that had cirrhosis
of the liver—
she said she couldn’t stop.
She refused detox—
she couldn’t stop.
She couldn’t let go
of her delusions,
her friends.
My friend and I looked
to see her website
about her poems and visions
had been taken down
and only her obit remained.
It was a clear day
when she called my friend
to tell him the news.
as she stood on her patio
and peered at clear skies.
knowing an overhead satellite
was reading her thoughts.
The psychiatrist gave her meds
to ease her delusions
as she bore the weight
of a body of knowledge
no one else possessed.
My friend called her
and called again
and she didn’t answer,
he and I pondered her fate
not knowing if she was
alive or dead.
It hurt thinking
maybe she wouldn’t
want us to know.
My friend and I reminisced
about the times we sat with her
on the sidewalk outside a coffee shop
and traffic passed
as we shared poems.
Back then
we always understood
her fears and aspirations
and we always loved her
as we listened between the lines.
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