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Dying Outside

Poem about ALS

A poem for Hal Finney

He will die outside, he says.
Flawed flesh betrayed him,
it has divorced him—
for the brain was left him,
but not the silverware
nor the limbs nor the car.

So: he will take up
a brazen hussy,
tomorrow’s Eve,
a breather-for-him,
a pisser-for-him.

He will be letters,
delivered slowly;
deliberation
his future watch-word.

He would not leave until he left this world.

I try not to see his mobile flesh,
how it will sag into eternal rest,
but what he will see:

endless plans for a
mind forever voyaging
on strange seas of thought

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