all turning like a kaleidoscope ~such whimsy ~
you wake one day to find you’ve lost your love
of lime popsicles or black licorice. You can have it

all though its time of arrival is uncertain and the one
who gives may be entirely unexpected: remember
Aunt Doris and that diamond ring you admired?

My friend Georgia said she wanted to die fucking
and she did, at 48, though she’d ingested a pharmaceutical
rainbow to deepen her elation. All and all at once?

All at once and for all time? Even Princess Di and John Jr
discovered life is shaped by angles and colours unimagined.
So if your judgment leads you astray, lay down your arms

before the stain of the day’s sunset. Survey your orchard
of family, friends and colleagues, spread a blanket
as night falls. Tall grass our bed, all.