Poison Pie Publishing House: The Last Monday Morning in October, 2013




The Last Monday Morning in October, 2013

The month is ending. One can say
with a note of exaggerated finality
that there shall be no more Mondays
in October of the year 2013.

The predawn rain shall not fall again
on the garbage collectors at the curb.
The grass shall not again dampen my shoes
as I carry the empty can behind the house.

The night shall not again give up the dark
through a series of rituals involving
the kisses of children as they depart
for school, at least not on this day.

Is it folly to note with melancholy
the passage of our lives, as if these
insignificant moments bore repeating
or even a place within our memory?

Shall I remember the pain in my hip
that disturbed my sleep and refused to yield
as I rose from bed and engaged in the greatest
of all technological marvels: a hot, morning shower?

Shall I remember the aroma of coffee,
waiting on the table and wafting into the bedroom,
prepared for no one other than me by my wife
in the kitchen, as she juggled a dozen morning routines?

Many of these tasks will come again,
some as soon as the morrow.
But none will find me as I was today,
just this old and almost forgetting to ache.



The Last Monday Morning in October, 2013
David Keffer
Knoxville, TN
October 28, 2013

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