late afternoon poem

 

WHEN A WRITER DIES

sympathy conjugates impossibility,

the mourning in total silence//

you are too kind in allowing

hyperbole to murder grief//

the fated dancer is the fatal dance//

old folk say DEATH IS AND DEATH AIN’T//

yes, you know as well as I

exaggeration is a perfect eraser of difference

as piety extracts one word after another.

 

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            April 18, 2021

 

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