Thinking Ahead

she announces that finally she can say out loud
some things she’s been waiting to say
now that both of her parents
have passed

I think I have said
those things already
so what will I say
when mine have gone

will I give up war
focus on peace
will I give up
entirely

shall I be the one
to come back
to the subject
clean things up

or will everything remain
as it is now but with me at last
standing under my own precarious sword
now that they are no longer game

I have nothing to announce here
for the moment
but in the way her shoulders have risen
from their customary slump

I suspect that there will be
work for me to do
long after I am in a position
to decide how to react to the same thing