Date of Death: September 11, 2001
by Mimi Moriarty


A daughter tends to a father
thin as an unhurried river
he can no longer swallow
dies under a hospital sheet

A woman in a tenement lies
on the floor, roaches crawl across
her deflated hopes, she overdoses
alone sprawled across the tiles

A woman labors hard, her baby
stillborn, the halo of life dims
just as she delivers him into
the bright fluorescent light

A foolhardy child loses his footing
tumbles from a ledge into a ravine
after twenty-four hours his body
is recovered by a team of climbers

A woman scrawls a note, ends
her short life as tragic as the Greeks
her narrative short and bittersweet
she eschews smoke and mirrors

A man alone chokes on a bone
grabs the table, topples hard, is found
face down, a jar of chutney open
on the table, a fly dances on the rim






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