poetry, Volume 4 number 10, November/December 2002, © 1999 by Doreen Fitzgerald

Vaya Con Dios

The body leaving
turns and winks and whispers
Adios, my friend,
cares not a whit
for tears and prayers,
but like an old friend,
sits back down
and listens to the might have been
and where we went--
the once upon a time.

The body leaves
in fits and starts,
in temperament, a cheap used car,
desperate for an engine part,
transmission work,
and four new tires.

The spirit leaving
simply floats away,
beguiling us to hunker down
and pray.

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