for Marty Flomen
     RIP 1942-1997

no secret
the hands of your clock
ticked a smaller circumference
across 55 years
gears slowly clogged with
asthma, diabetes, triple bypass
yet no one predicting
how soon you’d deliver
the ultimate poem

at the wake
no casket
only photographs
as testament to a life
despite handicaps
hurled bravely
at the pretentious grunts
of those around you
your 35mm smile
projecting teasingly
from another world
not even a week ago
as close as a phone call
I didn’t make

nauseous
I bellow into the vacuum
once vibrating with your poetry
who now my
dispenser of brotherly wisdom?
hero of open-mindedness?

and for a slice of your eternity
the hands of my clock
ticking a smaller circumference

© 1999

1,190 hits as of September 2024

05/14/2015

Author's Note: Another mentor...who went too soon. Published in The Ontario Poetry Society (T.O.P.S.) anthology, Outward Bound, edited by Katherine L. Gordon, and I.B. Iskov, HMS press, May 2004 ISBN 1-55253-055-8.

Posted on 05/14/2015
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti