THE RECENTLY DEAD

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The living 

experience loss

but so do the recently dead 

as they watch us

grow smaller and smaller

In the rearview mirror

of their heaven-bound coffins

feeling as forsaken

as the sad-eyed man

who, after dropping off his baby at the faraway college,

had to pull off the road

to cry in the confessional booth

of a Circle K bathroom

as gas pumps rang like slot machines

Sinatra sang What’ll I Do

in a nearby jukebox

an old soldier waltzed

with an armful of air

in the forgotten trenches of a VFW hall

as that daddy heart

emptied every memory

that it could no longer hold

onto the life-scarred mosaics

of a just-mopped floor

feeling no doubt

like the departed

who do not know

any more than we do

how to say goodbye.

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