The Death of a Friend

Two years I have known you


And at the news of your death I know not what to do

You told me yourself of death’s imminent arrival

From which you and I know there will be no revival

For longer than I have known you your life has been leeching away

Though it was not known as terminal until this day



I cannot say that beauty has always marked your face

Nor can I say that you were completely filled with grace

But you were the perfect representation of creation

And a glorious bastion to the imagination

While you did not go to college-

You were filled with a depth of knowledge

We never held a warm embrace

But I know each line of your face

I know nostalgia will always take me with a wiff of your smell-

Or whatever else reminds me of you as well



We’ve been walking together but now it is the path of uncertainty

You know what to do with you but what of me?

You have advised me to spare myself the grief

And make our future together even more brief

As soon as I can I will take the branching path-

For me there could be infinite steps but for you it is only a matter of math

In one hundred days exactly you will be no more

And never again will I pass through your door

The intervening pages in the story of your life are not yet all filled, my friend,

But already I can see just a little ahead the indelible writ of ‘THE END’

Seuss-Style Birthday

Ah, yeah, so this is a Dr. Seuss style birthday poem I wrote. I may, at some point in the future, make it longer and find an illustrator so it can be a children's book. We'll see. This is for my mum whose birthday is today. I had the idea for it yesterday and wrote it today. I'm told it sounds like I was going for so I guess it worked out well.


today is your birthday no matter how old
or how bold, cold, bitter, or if you glitter
(as some faeries do in the highlands of Tenatee
when they turn twenty-three.)

today is your birthday- the day you were born
so here is a shoe horn, a cream horn, and a gilorn
(which is like a kazoo but made just for you by the boys in DuBois)
and I'll even play the french horn
if you don't mind that my music most people call noise

today is your birthday so you ought to have fun
in the sun or enjoy a new toy
unless you would rather just blather and bluster
because after all today is for you
(and not for Lou or Sue or Jimmiky-kew)

today is your birthday- that one day a year
when cake, balloons, ice cream and presents
just seem to appear whenever you're near
so take advantage- go out and about
and spread the good cheer to all you hold dear

today is your birthday- today and not another
it's not a day like every other
it is a special day in each and every way
because whatever you say and whatever you do
you are a very special you
aproximately one in sixty-five hundred thousand thousand
people are precisely like you
so enjoy this day- the day of your birth
because today is your birthday
(at least here on earth)