coroner's cause

Multiple myeloma is the second most common hematological malignancy and is invariably fatal.
   Dr. A. Rodriguez
   Thalamid and Multiple Myeloma, 1999

dr. rodriguez gets straight to the point
    like grapeshot into the chest
at close range, or the blunt
    pen of the coroner.

how to turn fear into
    light?

at best, a cure will buy me two or
    three decades of suntime.
but i so love the taste of air, &
    the touch of brightness & the
nearness of my dear dear woman
    that i want to stay.

invariable fatality is a gift of
    life & maybe
our reward for living.

all that we have, we
    we do not own, all we
can grasp is emphatically on
    loan.

it's time to surrender the
    control we never really
had.

to be
    free as the
wind
    confident as
earth
    bold as
fire.

it's time to fall in
    love & death––

to dive in the water & be
    lost in the flow;
& where it's flowing
    nobody
knows.