Quite Frankly

They got old, they got old and died. But first—

okay but first they composed plangent depictions

of how much they lost and how much cared about losing.

Meantime their hair got thin and more thin

as their shoulders went slumpy. Okay but

not before the photo albums got arranged by them,

arranged with a niftiness, not just two or three

but eighteen photo albums, yes eighteen eventually,

eighteen albums proving the beauty of them (and not someone else),

them and their relations and friends, incontrovertible

playing croquet in that Bloomington yard,

floating on those comic inflatables at Dow Lake,

giggling at the Dairy Queen, waltzing at the wedding,

building a Lego palace on the porch,

holding the baby beside the rental truck,

leaning on the Hemingway statue at Pamplona,

discussing the eternity of art in that Sardinian restaurant.

Yes! And so, quite frankly—at the end of the day—

they got old and died okay sure but quite frankly

how much does that matter in view of

the eighteen photo albums, big ones

thirteen inches by twelve inches each

full of such undeniable beauty?

Source: Thresherphobe (The University of Chicago Press, 2013)