Broken Rhythm
In follows out,
rhythmic, unchanging;
flow follows ebb;
day follows night.
Over the years
I ached to dissuade,
quoted statistics,
asked all those questions that you found
so unimaginably boring -
Would you board a flight if ....?
If Stephen started to smoke ....?
knowing, deep-down you were a gambler,
a fatalist.
In follows out,
rhythmic, unchanging;
flow follows ebb;
day follows night.
Yes, but death follows life
and you don’t believe
any more than I do
that life follows death.
I showed you slides,
sections of lung.
Here was a miner,
your eyes turned aside.
Here just a smoker,
look hard at this slide.
But I’d quoted statistics,
I’d said one in eight.
That still left you seven
chances with fate.
In follows out,
rhythmic, unchanging;
flow follows ebb;
day follows night.
Emphysema moved in,
blocking your breathing,
Smallest of tasks
an insuperable load.
We met one more time,
a day full of lies,
each knowing full well,
we were saying goodbye.
Station steps loomed
impossibly high.
I turned back to wave
and saw, one more time,
your diminishing figure,
unable to climb.
In follows out,
rhythmic, unchanging;
flow follows ebb;
day follows night.
Page(s) 64-65
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