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Into the Wreckage (Free verse) by zodiac
Here was a party of aged men,
Their glasses raised at the moment now
Forever spun sunwhite and translucent.
They used to toast: When I die,
Love, hang me by
The tweeds in the bedroom closet.
And bring me out on holidays,
Sit me down the table a ways,
A little more tattered each time
But serviceable yet.
Until some year you come and find
Me grown moth-light and firmament,
And I will be content.
On my way in
I passed ten million men
And women crying, My brother! Oh God, my brother!
The crew holding the line stood stunned;
Brothers themselves, they hadn't known
There were so many brothers in this town.
Here was a coffeemate, an insole, a purse.
We told ourselves it could have been worse,
Though we'd forgotten how.
Oh, when I die
Make me many things, but first
A shady place where children play
Under a spreading tree whose boughs
Spill white petals across the way,
Where lovers walk, long after this day
Is set, and my dust dispersed.
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