DEATH WATCH.

[dadio]

The matron says, I want you
To see someone die, it will help
You understand the other side
Of our work, so you follow her

Along the passage to a room
To one side, where a small old
Woman lies in bed with her eyes
Closed and breathing heavy.

You stand by the bed opposite
The matron who stands like some
Carrion bird looking down. That
Sound, she says, is the death rattle,

When it stops so does she. You
Stare at the old woman, watching
Her rising and falling breasts, the
Sound echoing around the room,

The drawn blinds keeping most of
The daylight at bay. You wonder
What the old woman’s last thoughts
Were, whether she is still thinking

Now, pushing through the dense
Fog somehow. Her silver white hair
Is plaited and neat and most of her
Body is shrouded in a white sheet

From her chin to her feet. The matron
Looks at you, her eyes large and
Brown like those of a cow, seem
Full of I have seen it all before kind

Of stare. You study the final rise
And fall of the woman’s breast, the
Last breath never comes, just silence
And she, the woman, finally, at rest.

[justwalt]

at last, the soul, is
split from its being,
evidenced with the
final shuttering of
her formed flesh...
absolution complete,
the cycle advancing
on schedule as the
cosmic one sees fit...


thanks dadio

[dadio]

Thank you, Walt.

[joel]

My death, my final dalit of my heaven-heard Shema.

...a holy moment and always a privilege, honored, to share....

[dadio]

thank you, J oel.