3116. NOT DEAD YET

NOT YET DEAD
I can no longer hesitate, must go straight ahead, calling
your name, shouting every word and thought like
Camelot once come to naught : battlements,
bullets, ballistic, defrauded, befriended and sought.
La Dolce Vita and five wagons coming, the surf
was pounding on the rails, the overhead banners yet
displaying your name : beleaguered, belittled, be still.
-
I am so sad as I realize Life will leave us lonely,
and you will die and so will I; and all the rest of
us remaining, we too will die and pass...
Old paint on porches I see peeling;
sometimes tattered flags as well, ripped
to shreds. Too many Summer winds,
too many Winter suns.
-
Please, I ask you, do not make me need
repeat all I have just said. I am
tired already, but I am
not yet dead.

The most of the matter has never left me,
pale perhaps as my face may be.