The Heart Failure Poems (for Mia and Gwen): Poem II

In my time of dying,

I remember you

Toddling toward me

In the garden, 

Dragging a book

Of Blake's Songs

In your wake.

You seemed so far

Ahead of the pages

Of my first book-gift

To you.

You commanded me

To "READ!"

In voices

That only little girls

Can muster,

That only little girls

Can achieve.

Augustine himself

Heard the same voice

In a garden

In Algiers.

Conversion to innocence,

Return to the parent - 

The mother, Monica -

Who'd believed 

All along.

So you're branches

Of a garden tree

That blooms

In one-word innocence

As you pick up 

And "READ!"

We pass through Augustine

Only to become

Monica

Once again.

My twin toddlers,

In your dual voice

Blending as one 

In the unity

Of the cosmos,

In the pattern

We can't see,

You return me

To my garden - 

My peace-memory - 

Whenever you "READ"

Kurt Vonnegut,

Neil Gaiman,

Philip K. Dick,

Neal Stephenson,

William Gibson,

David Mitchell,

WILLIAM BLAKE.

AND, PERHAPS SOMEDAY,

YOU'LL "READ" ME,

AND REMEMBER ME 

HOLDING YOU BOTH CLOSE

ON MY LAP

IN THE BOOK

OF MEMORY.