Conversations with a Dying Woman
by Richard King Perkins II
I’m sorry
I was so mean to you yesterday
when you came to my bedside
but you were smoking a pipe
and your face
wasn’t your face
so I got scared
and said mean things to you.
Maybe it was all just a dream
but I don’t think so
because I remember
other portions of our conversation
so vividly—
especially the part where I told you
that we are not creatures
with souls
but instead
we’re souls with people
just barely attached
and you said
you loved that idea
and would put it in a poem
someday.
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