My Four Horsemen

Harold could quote Kant

Spinoza and Guide

for hours on end

and died.

Richard counted the days

from Sinday nights to Fryday afternoons

cursing the bastards

who never had to work a day

and died.

Herman spent forty years

leaning over the sides

of ships, wondering what porpoises said

remembered Francis of Assisi's

words at night

and his own

written on the steel gray bulkheads

and died. 

Chester was a mute

never took a single step

lay still as a dead stick

staring into the nursery ceiling

until he was forty five

and when he stopped...did he die?