Arlene Corwin writes

Dead Men In My Life

McEndree and Burrelli, 

Mazza, Fleri,  

Council, Palmer, Most, Fruscella, 

Gone from life, this life, my life.

Never thought or knew they’d leave. 

How naïve! 

There are more; 

I’ve kept no score. 

Husbands, lovers, colleagues, friends. 
It always ends.
One tends to not call them to mind,
Just acquiesce, defer to fate.
They’re there in kind from time to time -
The dead men in my life;
Intelligences
To the heavens.

Now is here, and I am here.
In my future,
Here will absolutely be their there.
Unbothered, at this juncture
Intimate and off the record,
I am stilled to muteness.