No Time for Denials
You could be the colleague
at the copy room coffee pot with your grimy mug,
that emblem of habit, knowing
what the doctors said, what your own
iridescent cells are instructing you in.
You could be the email appearing next week
announcing calling hours.
You do not need to be in bed to be dying.
So now’s no time for denials.
I said I understand
but what did I know?
I said I love
but what did I give?
Time now for beyonding,
for the So-Much-More.
Makes me laugh.
Hard to resolve much
with the hand of eternity
twining its fingers in mine.
About Edward A. Dougherty
GRACE STREET, Edward A. Dougherty’s latest collection of poems, is available from Cayuga Lake Books. He teaches at Corning Community College and is a regular reviewer for American Microreviews & Interviews.
