...jus' a lil'sompin somthin'...?

“…last time I was back home I heard this story
that was supposedly in the Cape Cod Times
a few weeks before I got there that summer…

way down Cape…
they found the footprints of an old woman
leading down to the water
from her cane she’d left standing…
decidedly stuck in the sand…
of the National Seashore…

the picture of an old
soul finished here in this body…
swimming out past the break…
swimming for the deep…
swimming passed the past…
swimming for the old body to give out…
swimming to choose the day
& the hour rather than wait for death…
to go meet it…tempt it…toy with it…dare it…
to cheat death of the satisfaction
of taking away something precious
one might not be ready to part with…
while others right now may or may not be clinging onto…
grasping onto any thin hope to prolong life…
to stave off the inevitable visit of ones end…
bargaining with god…
promising in fear…
fingernail clawing for any shred of life
kicking & screaming for more
life
more
light
more
breath…

…to swim out to sea
rather than remain
an old woman in America...

...to swim out through the cold chill waters
‘til the numbness comes over your skull
& your heart
rather than remain an old woman on earth
just after the turn of the Millennium…”