Grave Meeting

Making love to a woman

a decade or so younger

is sometimes a strain on the heart

but this morning it's you who's late coming

or else I'm early: over-eager I acknowledge.

so in the meantime I'm lying here

with Jane Peabody obit. 1792 ae. 43 and

although she's not resisting greatly

please don't be much longer my dear

since I'm further warned by one Jonathan Pierce

whose mo tal bod is fading quickly

even though he p ssed away more recently

18 3 to be more or less exact

(resist the thought: I'm sure it's an a

i was last night after all that Vouvray we drank).

so why did we plan to meet here?

maybe I'm malicious (or old) enough

to face you with my next (but one or two) liaison

to ask you if you still maybe want a man

so patently close to Jonathan's problematic state

or maybe even you have something in common

with Jane-other than my resting

lazily upon her after this all too brief communion

ah at last you skip through the churchyard gate

so I slip off her unrewarding body

you're not so permanent, my dear

that I can waste even this churchyard's

cool and eternal patience