The Widower
“Still falls the rain”
–Edith Sitwell
Life has too many knots
that cannot be unraveled—
Too many spiders, too many nets.
Lovely hands I held once have become dust.
(Must entropy putrefy flesh? Why?)
I’m old now, reduced to one word
on a yellowed piece of parchment
about to be thrown into the trash.
We said that word to each other many times;
she won’t say it again.
She was the only one who could tolerate me
for what I was and am. Now she’s gone.
Sun, moon, stars, planets, pain.
Man is a desert. Still falls the rain.
© Thomas Dorsett
Examples of Thomas Dorsett‘s poetry have appeared in over 500 literary journals, including Confrontation, Southern Poetry Review, North Carolina Review, The Texas Review, Poem, and California Quarterly. He is the author of a number of collections as well. In addition to being a poet, a translator, and an essayist, he also has been a medical doctor for many years.
The Loch Raven Review 