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Parting Words from Moristotle” (07/31/2023)
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Monday, August 21, 2023

Afterlife (a sonnet)

By Eric Meub

On visiting your native town, we walk
The streets you used to walk before we met.
We talk about the sights. But as you talk,
And as you smile, I can’t help see regret.

Some memory transfixes every spot:
Old dreams, perhaps, of what would gladden you
In years to come. The years have come: I’m not
The future you were looking forward to.

How brave you are—to walk with me, yet bear
Such disappointment, such surprising grief
That, just this once, you can’t humanely share
With me, the one who usually brings relief.

My fault: I thought that you’d enjoy the week.
You take my hand and press it to your cheek.


Copyright © 2023 by Eric Meub
Eric Meub is a California poet & architect.

2 comments:

  1. What a sad, accepting, consoling final word, Master Eric, you with your compassionate heart and penetrating mind. All of us Moristotelians seem to be bearing disappointment, needing to take others’ hands and press them to our cheeks. Thank you.

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  2. Eric, I have to thank you again for this sonnet. Visiting Moristotle & Co. again this morning, an act of looking back, I read it and felt that familiar thrill of admiration for a poet of great gift. I miss your submissions. Maybe you have a few new poems you’d like to share with me by way of email, as in the old days? (I wonder, of course, whether you will even get a notification of this comment. Are you still subscribed?)

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