From The Chronicles of His Demise
Prognosis
When my doctor pronounces my death sentence,
I will smile and thank her.
No mammoth contributions from me
to profit-conscious Pharma.
No sentimental thoughts of three more months
or other similarly circumscriptive promises.
Just a relieved sense of having all of this ended,
neatly, by the will of God or gods.
Dead Weight
I am not the wind.
I am a stone eroded by the wind,
fixed in place by gravity and inertia,
aware of my own predicament
but powerless to move to safety.
I watch the wind diminish me
and urge it to hurry up.
It is dull here and I want to be done.
Mound
Bury me
under all the
waste I've made-
my burial mound will
rival in mass a Mayan pyramid.
When my doctor pronounces my death sentence,
I will smile and thank her.
No mammoth contributions from me
to profit-conscious Pharma.
No sentimental thoughts of three more months
or other similarly circumscriptive promises.
Just a relieved sense of having all of this ended,
neatly, by the will of God or gods.
Dead Weight
I am not the wind.
I am a stone eroded by the wind,
fixed in place by gravity and inertia,
aware of my own predicament
but powerless to move to safety.
I watch the wind diminish me
and urge it to hurry up.
It is dull here and I want to be done.
Mound
Bury me
under all the
waste I've made-
my burial mound will
rival in mass a Mayan pyramid.
I am not the wind.
I am a stone eroded by the wind
Heavy words well written *
Grim, but damned good.
Thank you, Foster.
Thank you Matt.
No mammoth contributions from me
to profit-conscious Pharma
Hell no. they don't pay for the nails in the coffin.*
Than you, Tim.
I love the stone analogy.
Hey, stick around! You class up this joint!
And you write well.
To wit: "I watch the wind diminish me"
Thank you, Erika.
Thank you, Bill.
Really like this, Gary.
Thank you, Kitty.
Prognosis is interesting. *
Thank you, Beate.
Well done! Such economy and force.
Thank you, Dianne.
Like them all but liked Mound most. It aroused my guilt for I, too, would register Mayan pyramid-like on the garbage scale.
You've a dark mind, Sir. *
Nice work, Gary
Thank you, Gita.
Thank you, Kyle.
Enjoyed the set.
Thank you, Sam.
These all approach the bone closely.
Good work.
Question: could or would "Mound" be helped by replacing "size" with "mass" or "weight"? (The gravity of waste might be accented thereby in a way that the size of a Mayan pyramid may itself not suggest as directly.)
Thank you, Edward. I have used "mass" instead of "size" in a revision.