Accidental wit-
ness you turn
the tv on
Woman sobs in Kyiv
Accident is still
intent I watch as she leans
Over a bloody
Sheet world goes on not
Like Brueghel but worse no one
Was flying they just
Died Not quantity
But quality of life wrote
Marcus Aurelius
Matters after-lives
Of conversation I was
Happy he’d found love
Though I only knew
Him on Facebook, once chatted
At American
Cannery Brooklyn
This too is real this friendship
Over internet
(Not Antoinette no)
See my cousin's goodness through
Smudge, portrait taken
To find the distance
In her presence on my screen
So like my father
It’s all about kind-
ness Matt says “kindness kindness
Kindness” turns to leave
Stage then exits
Two days ago his wife posts
At Zelenskyy’s age
44 Aaron’s
Number like a brother or
The guy who leaps out
Of a cake in Cubs’
Uniform in Kyiv laughter
Prophetic balm or
Pathetic in both
Senses sad and with feeling
Can’t make a story
Out of pain can’t make
Pain for sake of story so
You invent new forms
Call them recovery
Sobriety a daughter’s
Love to bind you to
That spot on our stage
You leave again as we note
Our shocked ironies
“This may be the last
Time you see me alive,” he
Said. “Drop name into
Empty bucket, when
I’m gone, I will hear it in
The ringing of a bell.”
Note: the end of the last quotation is from Matt Hendriksen’s “Another Coda,” published in Brooklyn Rail, March 2019. The first part is from Zelenskyy. Other material from Matt's Ted Talk in Fayetteville, several years ago, as well as memories that only now seem linked to me.
