To Jon in October

Knowing our lives a drowse

towards death

(attended by dogs

& children)

how can it not matter

that I remember

(day after day)

that one day

we shall lose

each other,

lose the lights

in each other's eyes

to death,

& drift off

to other universes.



Love shall not save us

from being alone at the end,

& the daughter we made

in that fine high exuberance

of having found each other

shall not save us either.



We shall go off

into the ether alone,

trying to remember

(as the threads unravel

& the brain cells turn

to fluffy cumulus clouds)



that on clear October days

like this one,

when the hills were

red with maple,

gold with oak,

we bumped along in the Jeep

reminding each other:

'Wake up! Wake up!

This will not last forever!'