MY MOTHER COULD TALK TO ANYONE

 

So, said my mother, where are you from?

Nowhere at all said Death. I'm an abstract concept,

An absence, an act, an end and not to be confused

With an actual being. Fine, my mother said,

But where are you from and what made you choose

To be Death? If you must know (Of course I must, she said)

Patchogue. I'm from Patchogue but also from Harbin

And Port Arthur. I know Patchogue, my mother said,

An unfinished sort of place and Harbin I've been to --

Very cold there! Port Arthur I would've seen

If I'd lived longer. Tell me something about it!

Death closes his eyes (since when does he have eyes?)

And says I don't have time to talk about Port Arthur

Nor inclination nor even ability. Abstract concept, yes?

Shahh, my mother says, talk a bit. I'm dead; you're Death;

Surely we're related? --I remember seeing you

The day I was born, talking to my mother

But you glanced at me. You were much the same

As now but younger. Paler. Not smiling but your face

Almost remembered what a smile was.

...... What color were my eyes that day?