Sometimes I think <br />of how you are hardly <br />alive, <br />of how we are all <br />hardly <br />alive, <br /> <br />dodging bullets, <br />dodging raindrops, <br />skidding on the ice <br />of Connecticut <br />winters, <br />narrowly missing <br />death <br />by botulism, <br />death in its <br />rattling can, <br />death by jaw, <br />death by womb, by cock, <br />death by <br />telepathy. <br /> <br />When I think of <br />your nuclear dreams <br />& the way you fuck- <br />head turned sideways <br />as if you saw <br />the Last Flash <br />(& were shielding <br />your eyes <br />with me)- <br />I think <br />that we are all <br />marked <br />beyond repair <br />by the notion <br />that even death <br />can die, <br /> <br />& that our children <br />will not know <br />the unutterable joy <br />of buying <br />their parents. <br /> <br />I bury you. <br />You bury me. <br />Our ages do not <br />matter- <br />since I am <br />life to you, <br />love, mother, <br />aunt & anodyne, <br />poet, playwright, <br />repairer, sharer <br />of your most secret <br />self. <br /> <br />& what are you <br />to me? <br />Son & brother <br />that I never <br />had- <br />clandestine Claudius, <br />hamstrung Hamlet, <br />mescaline Malvolvio? <br /> <br />What I want <br />to tell you <br />is that <br />I love you. <br /> <br />Impermanent <br />as we are, <br />may you <br />love me.<br /><br />Erica Jong<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/last-flash/