Arts

‘Evening Wind,’ Edward Hopper, 1921
Evening Wind by Edward Hopper, 1921. Photo credit: Edward Hopper / Wikimedia (PD)

Poem: Sharing Bandwidth With Emily D.

04/19/26

An Open Invitation…

 

 

Poet at ninety
beset by Endless peril
Falling  Cancer  Blood …

 

OK, not strictly
“Endless”— more like the reverse —
Ever Impending

 

… Pressure  Brain  Lung  Gut
Forced-choice lottery, minus
 a golden ticket            

                      

 

As Ends multiply,
Means recede — Will there be Breath
for a final Draw?

           

If I shake my head
won’t it signal — Self-Pity?
No  Yes  Yes, it won’t

 

Demand clarity
Accept ambiguity
A choice that’s no choice

 

Nothing moves without
Fear — a lesson lovers learn
to scorn.  And embrace

 

I keep forgetting
I’m dying. Stay close. Wish me
a Happy Ending

 

Once upon a Time
I never dreamed of living
a Lie-Free life

 

In Death-haunted verse
you kept green your Vow — Tell all
the truth but tell it

                                                                                                  s

                                                                                                                l

                                                                                                                             a

                                                                                                                                           n

                                                                                                                                                         t


  • Gerald Jonas is a senior editor at WhoWhatWhy and a writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, as well as other journals large and small.

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