Darling, honey, we need to speak of your funeral;
I've just been on the phone to Monsignor McNeill
And they seem to want such ... well, so much money.
Mercenary was the thought that crossed my mind
Since their church is really quite empty on weekdays:
I think we can dispense with the RC service.
I seethe in my coma, this twittering bitch,
Serena, my second ill-chosen wife, mother
Of none of my children, Thank the Lord for that,
Sits here, smiling, perched beside my hospital bed,
In a happy flush of exaltation: I twitch,
But she knows I cannot speak.
I shall keep the house in town, she says,
But I plan to sell off your stamp collection;
The books you’ve collected for the last forty years
Can be sold off, I’m sure, in a job lot.
I’ll wipe clean the computer, of course,
And shred all the files of your silly poems.
A ping and sudden peak in the monitor
Is the only reaction that shows; comatose,
My defeated body lies flat on the bed;
I pray to God for a surge of strength,
to allow me to rise from this bed like a Titan,
and smash to pieces her evil head.
Oh, my dear, you seem to be quite upset,
that unbecoming bulge in your bloodshot eyes;
I suppose it can hardly come as a surprise
Since the doctor says the cock winds down
Even on the most robust constitution; my resolution
Suggests Spain with my hairdresser Germain.
The monitor pings.
Your children from your previous marriage
Have expressed some wish to see you;
I said there was really no cause for alarm
(Ill-founded concern can cause such harm)
So they won’t be coming, darling, so sorry. PU?
PU, an incoming text on my mobile phone.
Ping, ping, PING!
PU? Please Understand? Unveil … Undress?
Germain’s such a tease, he can often fail
To understand the nuances of language;
But he’s a Demon Little Big Boy in Bed!!!
The influence of anguish, the soft caress:
Oh, another message! … it reads,
God, in the end, came through,
And I rose up from the bed with a leonine roar,
Lifted her bodily from the floor, and ….
The patient had fallen from bed to a chair
When he died; his wife, in an access of despair
Seems to have thrown herself from the window.
