When a Friend Dies

When a friend dies

By Marge Piercy

When a friend dies the salmon run no fatter/ The wheat harvest will feed no more bellies./  Nothing is won by endurance but endurance./  A hunger sucks at the mind for gone color/ after the last bronze chrysanthemum is withered by frost./  A hunger drains the day,/  a homely sore gap after a tooth is pulled,/  a red giant gone nova/ an empty place in the sky /sliding down the arch after Orion/ in night as wide as a sleepless staring eye./  When pain and fatigue wrestle fatigue wins./ The eye shuts./  Then the pain rises again at dawn./  At first you can stare at it,/  Then it blinds you.

ice

On the Ice Walking 

on ice so thin I can see the cracked pebbles On the bottom 

 Beneath this delicate sheen Glinting with menace

 Waiting for my frail Moment of weakness 

I know not what awaits 

In your heart, in your secrets 

Still I edge out From the shore

 Remembering the shock

 Once I crashed through I hold my breath 

Is this false hope? 

Am I lost or found? 

All of my yesterdays Fade in one word

 From your lips 

All the tears dry

 All the empty nights Fade away

 Is that a crack that I see?

 On the ice ahead 

Or the path away from here