Post Mortem

"Why me? I’m not a nurse!"

she often used to cry

at each turn for the worse.

She argues with him still,

as though he chose to die

that winter he fell ill.

I know, but never say

how long he yearned to lie

entombed in silent clay.

Sarcoma of the lung

was a doctor’s alibi

for death by poison tongue.

Alan Sullivan

© ____; originally printed in
The Formalist. Reprinted by
permission of the author.