Saving The Best For Last

  for P.W.

the final stop
Hospice Care station
the train arrives  
and goes no further

we save the best for last:
savoring, embracing
home and time
freeing words to flow like rivers

such a convention, this human urge 
to open up on the way out
like the fireworks finale
or an artichoke’s buried heart

love jumps out of storage 
so pure it wears no clothes
restraint evaporates
as floodgates freely open

tears fall with each word 
thank you, please forgive me, I love you
a symphony of tender exposures 
the intimacy of dying

what do we talk about on ordinary days 
the ones we think will go on forever?