Was it when you questioned Merline
about an odd sensation
the suddenness of something certain
I will never stop wondering what you were feeling
at the beginning of one more day
and if you were aware it was morning
when Merline asked you if you were in pain
and then the great rush
the blood bursting from that small, smooth lump
on the soft spot on your head
and blood streaming from your nose and mouth
onto the bed and onto clean, white towels
and you catching your breath
forcing the breath as if there was some chance
and Merline yelling only once for your wife
she told me she came running in time
or was it too late to see you struggle for the moment
and drop your head and fight the final, labored breathing
until your eyes were fixed
staring at whatever was in front of you
not at your wife anymore
not at the green lights of a nightstand clock
not at the porcelain birds in flight on a glass ledge
so still so lifelike not at anything you would remember
after memory had been blown from the body