desk and chair, image by "PrompterMalaya" on Pixabay, modified
Death of a Poet
Working at her desk,
When her heart gave out,
Just as she desired.
The medics released the pen
She clutched from her hand,
Found her slumped over
In her favorite chair—
A final poem to write.
They knew who she was;
Everyone did in the small town,
And were careful not to disturb
The set of papers before her,
Especially the current one,
Lines scrawled across a legal pad.
Preserving her respect and dignity,
They removed her, gently,
Then took her next
Where she needed to go,
Mindful of this woman of letters—
Laureate, in life and death.
Bart Edelman’s poetry collections include Crossing the Hackensack, Under Damaris’ Dress, The Alphabet of Love, The Gentle Man, The Last Mojito, The Geographer’s
Wife, Whistling to Trick the Wind, and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected
Poems 1993 – 2023, forthcoming from Meadowlark Press. He has taught at Glendale
College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal, and, most recently, in the MFA
program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. His work has been widely anthologized
in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press,
Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle,
the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others. He lives in Pasadena, California.
March 2024 issue