9.17.2025

keeping the terrible spirits at bay

How long to grieve for the aspens, how long 
for the father, half-paralyzed drugged up & pissing in 
a plastic orange juice jug, & Christ, aren't you sick 
of the endless mournful processional, the on & on song 
of the ending of everyone, can we get on the dance floor 
even if the music is tinny & wrong, & the mother took so long, 
ten years of shuffling down a corridor, pushing a walker, 
never mind, who cares, shut up, bong, bong, bong 
go the church bells, By my lively voice I drive away all harm 
was the inscription once, & in the fields the sheep 
went along baaing & banging their bronze bells in old Rome 
keeping the terrible spirits at bay, now go to sleep, 
how long for the goddamned cat, what's wrong with you? 
Just because it's night, and raining. Me too, me too. 
 
[Kim Addonizio {1954- } 'Unleaving', from Exit Opera]

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