When Bill Margolis died

John Thomas called him

A tree

In the forest

To whom death had come

In the manner of a woodsman

And "topped him".

And when John Thomas died

Raindog called him

A tree

A mighty standing oak

Bigger than death

Whom death could only whittle down

Chip by chip, one branch at a time

And only then

Gain access

Splitting the trunk.

This is the beginning of the passing

Of an era,

But only a shifting phase

Along the arc

Of return

Of an eternal

Sensibility,

And one

- O reverence -

For the good.

Now that

The Mendicant Troubadour

Rolls no more

And the great

Baltimore Foghorn

Is silenced,

May I gratefully report

That I cannot

See the forest

For the trees.

 

Note: The late Beat poets, John Thomas,

and William Margolis, who was confined to a wheelchair,

died recently within a few years of each other.