The Day Before

It was the day before the death, when no one yet had died That's the thing with mortality filled with sad uncertainty the day before the weeping clay and rubber boot of winter rain worn like evil coat on sallow back curses from my youth We once bowed as brothers on the alter of the world once sat as clams in the womb well we curled Then between dark and dark to the temporary light in the company of living hopes, loves, empty delights Imaginations drift memories sift while the breathing laboured slowly slowly slowly slowly the day before they died