I will wring death

from this rag of life

I will throttle

it as it goes

You can’t

throttle death

choked from a rag

but watch me

I will

Seeing my black boots, I thought

of how Dad put them outside

that Christmas we visited –

when his mind was going

and he draped a shroud

over my head – and my boots

were cold when I retrieved them.

And about how my uncle Mike

at a family reunion

put his arm in the photo

around the one who was missing

and said the next time might be

the last time

and it was.

And about how we’ll stand outside in a minute

watching a hearse go by,

and it will carry no one I’ve mentioned

thus far.

So what I did was swap out death for life.

I poked through and (for life was not all)

down in around and out again,

stitching a garment for every weather.

I have troubled much

with death, have trod

with feet bigger

than all my life combined.

Stay me, Lord!

Hold me here to

pray like a tree.