Nature morte

Inanimate objects, time arrested, brutally honest

Mounting infirmity, the dead end, nature morte,

Dead nature, not yet, life, still there, mortality

Survival, the clock ticks both ways

Nature morte with pacemaker, bottles of cortisone, vials of oxytocin,

Nature morte with yoghurt maybe, perhaps, she will keep down.

Nature morte with wrinkled sheets, a soiled blanket. Nature morte

with stacks of prescription on the table, an abandoned bedroom,

odors in the living room, coins’ change on the dining room table,

half-eaten breakfast waiting in the dark kitchen. Nature morte

with the son assessing how to dispose the hoardings

of the one woman who shares his genetic material.

Nature morte with twisting tension and grief, ambition frustrated,

dreams tempered. Nature morte with puss and phlegm and frailty,

Waste matter, with dried get-well bouquets, appointments notes,

hospital admittance slips. Nature morte in the four clocks ticking on the

side cabinet, one last pension receipt, still

ticking, and tocking, and ticking away.