Gene Wesley Elder
leaving his life
wrapping household goods
kitchen cups
spoons
tiny tablecloths
grandma’s china plates
in rumpled wrapping paper
snagged with ribbons
brown grocery bags
distributed to friends
ordering no memorials
give your money to an artist
who needs it
give my money to artists
just call my lawyer
get the money
take time
arrange things under trees
sit with them
make constellations of
cast-offs
till beauty rises
no I’m not scared
I’m just doing what we all do
sooner or later
lucky I had time to savor
think about what I lived
parcel things out
I wanted the windows and doors
left open
long last days
quiet filters
a few opera songs
deleted my emails
after writing a final one
THE END IS NEAR
ARTIST GOING UNDERGROUND
remember me     but even more
remember you

This poem appeared in We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage, edited by Hala Alyan and Zeina Hashem Beck and published by Persea Books.