| In My Wallet, a Warm Stone This morning, I tried to write
a villanelle from a newspaper headline:
"Meteorite Lands at Teenager's Feet,"
but could only rhyme picked it up
with coffee cup. And never
can I anyways un-Dylan Thomas my ear--
"Do not go gentle into that good night."
Instead, I cleaned out my wallet
(today is my birthday) and found this: Joseph, ma Cherie —
excuse the writing
for my hand is not too
steady right now.
Your Mom was quite sick
from the Bronchostropy.
Now I know how you felt when
(over) you had that terrible pneumonia.
Coughing was terrible.
Will write later
about this. Her pen's ink faded at steady,
then turned bold, in felt tip black, with
right now, and from there
seemed to sail through the paper —
in long dash-dotted i's and terminal periods —
like nodules of charred flying stones.
The Pleides, returning. And oh, that scrap of paper —
four inches scissored out of the Pelham Senior's Gazette,
her message to me interleaving the news, like this: Norman Perigny was a patient at Lowell General, he is home
ma Chérie
recuperating. James Elsmore, a member of our Club from Derry,
excuse the writing was in the hospital recently. He is also at home.
for my hand is not too
Our condolence to the family of Rene Page on the loss of his
steady right now.
And too, in this wallet space, I found
her last instructions,
written on the back of a wedding picture shot —
beaming mother-of-the-bride, in comfy
blue jersey dress.
The same dress of which she pleaded,
Joey, bury me in this. But I didn't.
And don't, please, drench me with flowers.
But so many roses. . .
And remember, I want to be cremated.
This we followed, but buried the ashes
in a baby-sized casket. The one
into which I now wish
I'd left her the common news of the sky.
Unvillanelled, uncrafted, but
with love interleaving. Ma douce mère —
Did you know a meteorite
bruised an Alabama woman's hip in 1954?
That a flying stone
punched a hole in a San Juan Capistrano carport
in 1973? That today,
a 13-year-old Noblesville, Indiana, youth
watched a live meteorite
burn at his feet? | 
