James Francis Cahillane

MONSTERS

 Just

in

time

for this

awful new century,

old King Kong came back to

New York, America’s Empire State

of mind. By the bye, ever since nine/

eleven, the Big Apple has not kept

away the doctor, nor the terror, nor,

what’s worse, bad memories that won’t

leave when asked. Comelier memories than

those flat out refuse to return when we kneel

together to pray. ALS killed Lou Gehrig of New

York Yankee fame. Alzheimer's is less selective.

One day

you’re here in body and appearance. Yet, you’re gone

to a long life’s purest reality, and unlike the master builder of one’s

youth, yes mine, you stop growing and regress into a state of being

that’s totally deaf to appeal, unable to look up, down, backward or forward.

Gray jail cells destroy ambition and hold fast a prisoner within my body.

Damn brains, damn sad endings, damn luck, damn, damn, damn!

When I don’t know you,

 know I loved you,

and love you

still.

The South Carolina Review, Clemson University, Clemson, SC