death is political (draft)

i. tegami
i grip her withered hands tightly, our final afternoon. then a taxi pulls my body back towards california, where the december trees are oddly green.

every raindrop, sunbeam and wind gust keeps its promise when a leaf finally falls. it’s an intimate moment, but not completely private.

i learned how to live from the painful dignity of her last weeks. whenever i fall, i hope others will remember the branches they grew from. anata no okage de.


ii. hyouki
have we met before? no, but you still look familiar... did you happen to see my heart on the way in? i’d like to really know who you are.

i’ll unclench my fist so our fingers can interlace. revolution is small sometimes – did you know thirty-one years ago it was illegal for our bodies to touch this way?

hubris is the best reason to bite our tongues. look, autumn has no conceit, just a quiet brilliance that year after year, evokes the same idea differently.

what i mean to say is, always, always kiss me before we start talking.

april

a bed of sheet music
and sleeping old violin

i'm fiddling danny boy
out on your porch

now     talk softly
to my fingertips

Tin Hat Trio - The Clandestine Adventures of Mrs Mertz