Being-Toward-Death: A Gogyohka Sequence

for Martin Heidegger

like a child
shoved
down the playground slide
scared
I reach this age

forty six
a long strip
of white sand
washed by waves
no footprints left

separated
by a thin wall
I've never
greeted my neighbour
Death

Death
(whom I just befriended)
and I
chat about our dreams
through the vent in the wall

Death lurks
about the room
taunting
how can I stop her
from editing my poems?

Death and I
face to face
minds apart
staring in silence
who will blink first

July/August 2010 issue of Sketchbook