Monday, December 21, 2020

literally waiting

old people
don't die easily. if they've
made
it into their nineties

or that rare stratosphere
of a hundred.

they know how to keep
the ball rolling.
they dig their heels in

and aren't leaving without
a fight.

you might think they're
close
to checking out

when you visit them
and their eyes are closed,

the monitors beeping,
bouquets of farewell flowers
around them,

but then you get 
the call that
they're up and about

playing checkers down the hall,
pinching a nurse
on the bottom,

no longer
on the morphine drip.

the priest in the waiting
room, looking at this watch,

literally waiting. waiting for
the last
rites call.

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