POEM FOR HAROLD NORSE
Neeli and I visit the ancient warrior
Praised by William Carlos Williams
And other literary giants
90 years old
early stages of dementia setting in
playing hide and seek inside
his solitary room
Now an old man trapped
In death’s shadow
He reads us a poem from
His collected works
His voice still loud and clear
Like Sunday Church Bells
He puts down the book becoming
Frail and vulnerable again
This rock of ages with peaked hat
Walking slowly with us to the
Cafe across the street
Complaining about the loud music
As Neeli orders him a cup of coffee
“Make mine black,” he says then
wants to know why I didn’t put
milk in it
This forgotten warrior
Walking back to the care facility
Neeli shielding him with an umbrella
to ward off the cold rain
“That’s my hotel the
Beat Hotel”
He says—
Hotel Nirvana racing inside
His blood
He stops says,
“I can’t go on”
out of breath
as if the next step
might be his last
He is like a bird
his eyes nesting
in my soul
feeding on poetry the
sum total of his life
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