Note to self: Avoid bears.
{Added as a result of subsequent correspondence}
Good piece. Just because something doesn’t kill you, it doesn’t make you stronger. I’m sure I told you we had a friend who was killed by a bear. -CR
Yes. The bear.
You mentioned it
the death, and it
the him also.
And the bear as well.
And it's true
that that which kills you
doesn't make you stronger
but instead just kills you
stops you dead in your tracks
and so forth, if walking.
And it's remarkable
quite literally
being killed by a bear.
You don't get stronger
but the myth of you
and your memory
or at least the circumstance
of your death in the memory
and imagination of those
who didn't ever know you
remains
True of sharks also
but a different kind of true
another set of photographs
and fears.
It's indecent isn't it to consider
the manner of such a death.
We labor over the pain
and labor of cancer
collected up
or spread about.
Imagine even
the heart attack
(when not attending)
the clasping and froth.
But a bear
or a shark
the horror of it
(like midnight's hammer)
these manners of departing
seem vulgar to run
our tongues over
to look at.
What was it like
to kill someone in the war
daddy, what was it like
to feel the hit take hold?
Dying
really isn't
the half of
it.