Deathwish [poem]
If I should die before I’ve had the chance to look
an angel in the eye and say with all the impetus
my rusty breast can cry: It’s you I ever want to be
with when the time has come to say goodbye then
cut the finger from my ringless hand and burn it
fast without a single strand of sentimental mercy
till the flames blood red have formed the letter Y
If I should fall before I get the opportunity to call
some creature from another realm a name by
which I capture her divine ability to overwhelm
(not undermine) my underused and tarnished
shine then amputate my tongue and let it thrash
around upon the barren ground until it seems to
choke and say I should have never said a word
If I should crumple in an awkward heap before
I’m able to awake from slumber’s sleep and see
the fearless face I’ve dreamed ten thousand times
(the source of all my battered clumsy rhymes)
then lever out my lifeless eyes and throw them
with no pomp or show into some starless sky where
they can blindly twinkle endlessly in nothingness
© 2012, Alan Morrison
The Naked Troubadour 