sinking
Facing a person expiring you see the wisdom of death concentrated like a black pearl, Sink to the bottom of the sea's inky gaze And pierce your own bubble Adrift in the slimy weeds like an unsuspecting octopus It jerks you awake and pulls you open like taffy Freeing you from the easy struggle of too many arms And the coagulated truths in your over-sized head No longer clear who is rising and who falling Or whether it was kindness or envy to point that out In either case you’re drinking and drowning And there’s a kind of shame in that as well as the sense that it wasn’t polite to unmoor you Who wanted to be the anchor And not the tears and arms aflailing But the dying person always knows better Is wiser, stronger and further along in getting sober Than you are