Many of you are back from your Easter Sunday celebration, and The Poem of the Week is here for you. This poem is being offered in honor of my stepbrother, who died on Saturday, surrendering to the ravages of a long, cruel series of illnesses that finally wore his body down. For those who know me personally, don’t worry when you read this. I’m not offering this as the blueprint for my own exit. Memento mori.
Last Act
I used to fantasize that, terminally old,
in a final act of awesome
I’d take a raucous late-60s Dodge or Plymouth,
gas-jet-blue paint and glasspack exhaust,
scream it off a high desert cliff,
and going Louise one better, pack it tight with dynamite,
mash the button mid-flight
with camera rolling
to immortalize the bloom, the boom,
the grand exit.
Back then, there was a VHS camcorder steady in the sand,
whirring calmly in the ensuing quiet,
(retrospectively, perhaps, the most beautiful moment)
recording the crawling black smoke plume
until the tape clicked off
to be discovered by my admiring survivors,
but I didn’t foresee high-def GoPros,
maybe a drone following me down,
a posthumous YouTube viral moment,
or the FBI breaking in my door at 4am on the big day,
the humiliation of geriatric zip tie confinement,
trying to explain that my giant car bomb
was the world’s fastest euthanasia machine
in terms of killing and the quarter mile.
p.ferenczi
Sorry for your loss Jorge. Loved the tribute! It got me thinking though about my own eventual demise and what I’d do if it could be anticipated to the day? — My wish would be to find a comfortable tree to sit against, deep within a solitude forest. Perhaps by a secluded lake or fast-flowing river and contemplate the beauty of nature as nature itself, runs its finality with me.
How sad it is that we do not get to pick our final moments. Expiring in a hospital, as will be most of our fates, seems a cold and inappropriate celebration of our joyful existence. Perhaps a reminder, that death’s clock is always ticking and we should make the best of what time remains! Be well and be safe Jorge!
Thank you for your kind words and good wishes. If I had choice, I would pick an exit very similar to what you describe. Be well!