757. AMONG THE WITHERING DEAD

AMONG THE

WITHERING DEAD
Down by the park they marked up the bodies :
12 in a row went down at the stream. All
those household pests and termites together,
things held in memory but things never seen.
-
I never knew what the magic number was.
Now old Jimmy Baldwin AND old Al Haig are dead.
Two together, so different and far apart, bumping
heads in their great hereafter. Like music in a
more-than-distant background, it's only something
I may have heard. Leave it to me to forget.
-
My dear mother, my God I forgot, the two of
you are also dead! Mom and Pop. Dad and Mom.
However one puts it, you too are both gone.
I just don't know what to do. All these names
a'jumble'd, one thing as dead as the other.
I have come to the conclusion - I may as
well here tell you - that 'Life' is good for shit
and that such shit is in large profusion.
Jimmy Baldwin, Al Haig, and you.