poem of the day 12.21.15

crossing over

ray says

my wife has been gone two years

but i still try to talk to her every day

okay, i tell him

last month her old hair dryer

fell off the dresser where i’ve kept it

and i took it as a sign

ray says

i haven’t moved that thing in two years

and then….BAM

all right, i say

when my wife was dying

she said she saw my mother, her father

and my brother all in the sky

ray says

my brother was a fireman

gone ten years

but my wife told me that he was still wearing

his uniform

everyone was calling him cap

some people live the job, i say

ray says

i found a one dollar bill in my pocket last wednesday

and on friday i found a ten on the street

good luck, ray, i say

that’s good luck

he said, my wife died on the eleventh

get it? one and then a ten

uh huh, i say

she’s always telling me stuff, ray says

always knocking photos over in the apartment

or sending a breeze on a hot day

for two years she’s been doing this to me

that’s why i got all these books, you see

life after life stuff, i say

ray says

if she’s gonna keep talking to me like that

i gotta know what to say

how to communicate

i see, i say

ray says

because i don’t know how long i’m still gonna be here for

could be today

could be tomorrow

the way i’m going it could be another ten years

and if my wife is gonna keep knocking things over

i need to find out what she wants

ray says

man, i need to figure out

this crossing over business

because yesterday the old lady knocked down

this whole row of collectable glasses

they shattered all over

the goddamned place, ray says

and now the set just ain’t complete

in fact, it’s gone

and, ray says

i don’t understand

because she always loved those things.