Best Assisted Poems
Appointment to have organ removed by robot-assisted surgeon.
Air-conditioned, no mosquitoes in the OR. When you arrive
You'll remove all your clothes. Naked before the ladies, nurses
Who have seen it all before. Mainly remember you're not unique.
Think about the government while they're mixing up the medicine.
There's always governance even if there's little or no government.
Back to counting backwards. Inside out, if I die, will I know it?
At 70, Jack's running the gauntlet with some skill!
Benny Golson wonders aloud what might have been
Had Clifford Brown not been killed in that auto accident.
Jack's girlfriend once said he was the reincarnation of Clifford
But he doesn't believe in ghosts, karma or an afterlife.
Benny's old girlfriend Betty inspired the tune Along Came Betty
And that's the most afterlife Benny or Betty's gonna get.
The Trojan bench being not as deep as the Greek
Once Sarpedon and Hector go down even the lucky shot
To Achilles' feet is not enough to save the town.
Aeneas is no match for wily Odysseus
Although unbeknownst to all he has the last laugh when Rome
Conquers Athens, the Myrmidons, what's left of Ilion
And the whole known world from India to Britain.
It's not bad to acknowledge death's primacy
Although after a while you stop remembering
To fear. That's when everything becomes clear
Purpose v. purposelessness matters less,
Anomie v. rule of law, that's a preference
Love v. loneliness, worth about 25 cents
Or a million bucks in the light of the holocaust.
Nothing but light, love and the majesty of death in the room.
Machines stand ready like marines, their beauty is in the motion
That overcomes inertia. The food supply is deeply compromised
So eat whatever you want. Mourning the dead is part of the business
Of healing and staying alive. When you get to the afterlife, walk with eyes
open,
Ocotillo and cactus may be in flower. The robot does the work, imposes
Its own small order, like a girl on a bicycle with disorder in her hair.
Life is down to no-frills necessities
in a room with the chest of drawers,
double bed and television.
The walker stands in the corner
waiting to be used to get to the dining room,
the social activity three times a day.
The nurse's aide, with her lilting Haitian accent,
comes around to check during the day:
time for meds, channel change? a walk
down the hall? a glass of juice?
You know that you mustn’t drive a car.
The house is gone, and so are its furnishings,
let's face it, life is over.
Grandchildren come to visit,
sighs of relief when it's over.
Dreams of the past when life was real
occupy time until dinner and bed.
Will
it all-
end in tears
Quite a debate on this topic this week in England
She smoothed the worn out roses on the apron in her lap
lamplight mellowed roughened knuckles
as she spread out her treasures
Like Silas Marner,thumbing his golden coins
Martha gently fingered every token of her life's journey
Some she even kissed,tenderly,reverently,recalling
some dear face,a memory,attached as surely as if it was
etched,permanently ,on her heart.
Martha smiled,whispered,and prayed as one by one she
placed her keepsakes back in a cedar box
until she came to the one thing she always saved til last
Her wedding veil. still crinkly and alive though yellowed with time
she took it up and put it on.Stiffly she hobbled to the mirror
In the looking glass she was nineteen and aglow with love
Arthur stood behind her,smoothing her hair.
she turned as he lifted the veil to kiss her,
Come my love,let's go down to dinner,he mummered in her hair
She took his arm and let him escort her to the dining room
The reception was a great success,or so the nurses told her
as they dressed her for bed and carefully put the mischievious
veil back in the cedar box beside her bed.
A bundle of flesh
Seeking to be more than 'me'
We are or are not
Killl her?? She cannot find his keys?
Worse, she has cannot remember me!
The fool, forgot where the morning paper is.
Crunch her up , get rid of her?
Lke a pile of dead leaves?
Let's kill these useless people as Hitler did.
Let's not remember all the years,
In which for us~their love and kindness,
had an endless lid.
We selfish so-called grown-ups, who are tied
to the internet and cell phones, so tethered!
Who look down on the mentally deficient
as worthless leather.?
Just do not forget, when we, too, cannot
remember.
We, too, will end up as inconvenient,when
the leaves fall, in our September!
..............................
They wanted to knock my Mother off and
and I refused. She lived six years longer!
Glad I did not folllow the hollow, cold
directions of these men in white coats!
11/30/2924
On
the other side
of morning
in the
deepest valley down,
she flew skyward
without warning
in her faded wedding gown
culminating
all her
ventures
in a coup d'etat of flight
as she scattered invitations
to a wedding
in the light.
said the bride groom
would be waiting
on the stairs to heaven's door
said she was anticipating
seeing his dear face once more.
so I waived and waved
and wondered
if she found him on the rise,
and if every day is numbered
you can't blame her if she tries,
reuniting with her
solider, killed abroad
in foreign wars
she could not grow any
older waiting underneath these stars.
now I stand here in the
meadow
in the moonlight
in a trance,
and I'm sure I saw
a shadow
of them
whirling in a dance,
straight across the
cold division
straight along the milky way,
and I hope my dark decision
sent her on her
fated way.
M A I D in Canada
Assisted death debate U K
Sweden Switzerland initials
( S S ) ?? Its in sitiu.'
Covid 19
Each offers!! A (solution flows)
Ya'know?
Same book, different pages.'
Stars watch me in my sleep
Sleep in the endless deep
Deep dark swallows my soul
Soul beaten in the dark so full
Full of nothing, just a simple void
Void wins, my light destroyed
Destroyed light but not my wisdom
Wisdom gives greater clarity than any other system
System gone, but not my understanding
Understanding now, void has no standing
Standing with no body, lack of power
Power is mine at the most important hour
Hour past, now the stars are gone
Gone no longer the day has been drawn
Drawn to obscure the night that still remains
Remains but only the body that a spirit feigns
Feigns life and power that never existed
Existed only the watching stars that, for me, assisted