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A Letter From a Friend Who’s Dead

A Letter From a Friend Who’s Dead

The other day I got a letter from a friend who’s dead.
She wrote it first, of course, to tell me things she wanted said
about our friendship, all the fun we’d had, the talks
about things near our hearts, things happy and things sad.

And now I’m thinking how so many dearest friends are gone:
the Judy who died years ago, my nearly-sister Gayle,
Patricia, Mrs. Faulk, Mary Ann and Sally, Bernie
and the Judy I received the letter from….

Then it occurs to me how all the people
at the breakfast table of my childhood left and left and left
and left, and I alone am here, recalling dimly
or with unexpected clarity those ancient times.

But then I think how life has multiplied the friends,
the family—never to replace the ones now gone, of course,
but filling in some empty spaces, holes left gaping when they went.

How many more will go before I join the great collection
on the other side? I cannot know, of course, and there’s no point
in going to this place of pre-nostalgia for the ones I love.

I kiss you all goodbye—but first, hello. I want
to open wide my eyes to all your precious selves
while we’re still here so that before I go, I too, as Judy did,
may have the luxury of telling you some things
I hope that you’ll already know.

6/29/19


For all my friends and family on the other side. May the circle be unbroken bye and bye. But not today!
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