Every Last One of Us
for Denis Johnson (1949-2017)
My friend Alex’s father-in-law had dementia
for years before he died. Every time he saw
his wife, he fell in love again, introducing
himself and trying his best to woo her.
They were both Japanese, the husband
and wife, gentle and loving, having lived
through the annihilation of other people
and their own. The memory is not yours, but mine,
but right now, in this Iowa field of lavender,
with one beam of impossibly golden
sunlight illuminating my wife’s smile,
at this precise moment, on this precise day,
I believe it belongs to every last one of us.
TFP IS A PROUD MEMBER OF THE IOWA WRITERS COLLABORATIVE
lovely
Beautiful work.