It’s 4:29 AM In The Morning Here
It’s 4:29am in the morning here
I have just swallowed the last of my 6 medications
They are supposed to keep me alive
I should finish this as quickly as possible
Nothing is guaranteed
That was my neighbor’s motorcycle pulling out
He works in a chemical plant about 6 miles away
I think he brought his cancer bug home to me
If he had asked I would have said “I’ll share!”
But devoirs d’etat and I have my pills
It’s now 4:31am and I haven’t got much done
I will have to stop soon as I need my green tea
Those days of endless cups of coffee have ended
Do I miss it? Yes idiot, I do! not to be rude
There are many things I will miss, some not
Breaking a person’s heart, being a real jerk
Hopefully those aspirations are caput mortuum
The love making, holding tight, being absolutely true
Who wouldn’t miss those living joys? Not me
Memories don’t really recapitulate experience
Once gone always gone nothing lasts that is new
Yet there is some microscopic yearning residue
You can see its specks scattered on my floor
Non omnis moriar I leave behind eager desperation
Being a real human being requires an opportunity
And more practice than I obviously knew.
Paul Strohm is a free-lance journalist working in the Houston, Texas area. His poems have appeared in Eunoia Review, Deep Water Journal, the Berkeley Poets Cooperative, WIND and other literary journals.
Copyright © 2014 by Paul Strohm
Home Page Cover Photo by Matthew Casey