When a Life Ends Unexpectedly
I recently learned of someone’s brother
dying in a bathtub and no one knew for a month
until the odor of death penetrated
the apartment’s walls the stench of being unnoticed
drifted under the locked door until the tenants
called the manager who came with a key
and the thing about this is that I too have relatives
who live close by yet we see each other but
twice a year and others who live one hour away
none of us see so how does a life
come to be this way how did it get to where
when I think how close we once werewhen thinking of closeness I have to admit
it is now with the trees especially when standing
among them in a place called Woods
their leaves flying down to my hands
their veined flesh filling my palms so many I want
to hold them all not like hands that cannot endure
the weighted emotion of emptiness mine will want
to be upturned with leaves spilling over so that
at the point of death my body will fall among them
onto the forest floor where they can begin
framing my face loving me back into the earth
down into my quiet end.
When a Life Ends Unexpectedly by Therése Halscheid | Poetry Reed Diffuser Set
- Therese Halscheid’s poetry has widely appeared in magazines. Her poetry collections include Frozen Latitudes, Uncommon Geography, Without Home, Powertalk and a Greatest Hits chapbook award. She lives simply to write by house-sitting. Her photography chronicles her journeys, and has been in juried exhibitions.
