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.