(for saba)

Days pass on like sunsets:

Few drenched and dripping

In beauty,

Most of them cloudy and blank.

Memories fade like jackets:

Details falling and being replaced

Like chipped buttons,

Stitched into something new.

People enter like guest stars on a TV show:

Their presence swept away with disregard

Until they exit stage right, leaving behind whispers of goodbye

And all is normal, as if they never appeared at all.

Food piles up like an avalanche:

Meatloaves and casseroles and cherry pies

As if they are supposed to be miracles,

And cure.

Prayers are recited like waterfalls:

Each syllable falling over the last

Competing in a hurried dash to reach
your ears 

And numbly recite verses of angels being lifted to Heaven.

Death watches from behind the bushes:

Making sure that everyone knows she’s boss

That everyone remembers she sits
on the throne

That everyone remembers how quickly
she can strike.