Death, from the Family of Secrets

she was found separately

from any significant other
biped


left two starving cats
wishing they could find her will
if only to see if she'd left them at least with pika:
the compulsion to eat anything inedible,
including the paper it was printed on

she must've loved animals
to the very end
(even after alcoholism
even after voices)

because animals are better than human imitations
of animal behaviour
(though liquid courage WILL put hair on your chest --
pound back another one
& pound your chest --
no -- YOUR chest,
not the community chest you
brought into this world!)

she was good at
removing people from her life
good at endings
(no matter how much they cared about her,
her voices were stronger)
unless of course
they could party with the best of her

but this is just the tip of her lifeberg,
thin ice on the rocks.
what the family brought so charitably to her table,
month in, month out,
decades after
-- without thought of reading the degradients --
was food for amnesia,
laced with guilt
(as preservative)

at least, that's what some said
in his head
as he walked again,
home

alone.

(he's been heard to die
laughing about the one where the guy dies
from overindulging
in irony)

this time, though,
he proceeds by attending a wedding instead
because life is all about
celebrating the humanity
within the institution,
ANYTHING
that might constitute
safe refuge

but,
ever & ever
the compulsive artist
too dumb to steal food instead of lines
from all-but-final episodes
of futures plotted along
curves in starry space-gazings
he thinks he too
has mastered the elusive art of series-endings
by impressing into service
"she was important"

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

shh!
the story is just about
to survive it subject