Look back on the life of a man
The minute before he dies
While those machines bite into
shallow skin manifest the last heart noises
And shriek terrible monitory sounds,

He’s giving up.

It’s the glow of those machines
that only witness
whatever death he faces

Does he confront them?
Shouting around the
tube stuck in his throat

Does he think back
in high school
when he lost the basketball game
he missed a three-pointer
And he wasn’t good enough
Does he tell the machines that he was? lonely.

Will he tell them he loved a girl once,
Loved her, and left her
For being afraid
Of all the dark in the world.
Will he tell them that he thinks of her

Does he make sure they know his will,
Will he ask them where he’s going to go
Into the shadows of forever life

I think he does.
And I think they answer him,
Shrieks of noises that mark his death
With sudden silence
And they are words that only the dying can hear.