Elegy for a Friend, Dying Too Soon

(In Memoriam: Sharon W., 1941-2012)

Sooner or later, you had to know,

so why not know?  Deferral

would be no kindness to you,

only a gift to others,

afraid to say the word,

and consumed by impotence;

while brave soul that you are,

you have no quarrel  

except with the indignities of dying;

and if you must depart,

why not now, in mid-autumn,

in the company of all nature,

following the leaves and the flowers

into some waiting winter,

peopled by yourself alone,

leaving us and our good intentions

waving from the banks

as you drift from view.