the way it all ends
my left thumb continually worries
at my ring finger all day long
where the leaf and vine gold circlet you gave me
in honor of ‘us’ has left
a livid indentation.
did i really touch that gold emblem
so many times a day? checking,
checking it was still there?
apparently so. and every time now
my nervous thumb feels – yet again –
for it, i am shrouded in loss.
for years i had held it evidence
of a union that had been and was and was to be,
like an ultimate truth.
but you know neither past nor future
and your words testify to loss,
to oblivion.
and as i cross that cruel river Styx on
my little raft of tenuous life
i see hands --
hands reaching from the dark abysmal waters
one of them may be yours
and in a great agony of helplessness
i turn away
June 9, 2007
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