Elegy

How quickly

death interrupts

the narrative,

the story arc,

the trajectory

taken for granted.

Abrupt full stop.

A friend

you loved for

forty years

suddenly

past tense.

His time.

his actions,

now memories.

The person

who stuck around

and fought

for you,

unstuck now.

The reassuring

smile. The

hand upon

your shoulder.

Fine words.

Quick eyes

slid beneath

earth’s lid.

Beginnings,

middles,

both easy.

The end,

harder

to tell.

So few love you

in a lifetime.

Each death

Diminishes 

The present.

The movie over.

The credits

shorter

with each

curtain’s fall,

Soon none

will scroll there

at all.