Morgan slipped into the Aegean at Monemvasia
for the algae-covered rocks tried to keep him
out. He would be the first in. Mother asked:

Who can explain the tears in his eyes, realizing
the historical moment crossing into the present,
mountains behind the orchestra at Epidaurus,

Let them twirl a dance
Of shadows, she so graceful
In the hand over hand, he

They call me Jack Jigger because
I’m entirely made of little pieces
Taken from other people (some are

We are hollowed out by death, as by life.
How many moments to balance the weight
of forgetfulness—that knowingness which

Toenail, bracket, header, joist and brace—
words nailed into place

In Anderlecht, the Maison d’Erasme
sits in an elegant courtyard as if
withdrawn from the vulgar world—concedo

These days I take my dying seriously,
after trying, and failing, to make it into a joke.
The silence was what doomed me ultimately:

So weakened by life he could just pass
through the world this hospital bed,
he lies as still as someone already dead.

My mother built a screened-in porch
with a clear view of the west
just so she could sit in a glider