Ode: To Defiance

When I stand at last on the brink of death

who will I see waiting on the further shore?

Will I see among those that passed before

some enemy’s arms crossed and an air of menace

others with open arms ready for an embrace?

With some I fought with some shared breath.

Will some poets I’ve read be there, Berryman maybe?

Will I see him wandering among trees with Sylvia

deep in thought contemplating suicide?

Beyond this death is there another they could choose

go where ghosts go and be flotsam and jetsam

erased on the beach by a rising tide?

I will not stand upon the brink of death

I’ll swim rather than look into Charon’s eye

for mythic streams are just wading pools for me

where history lingers on its way to the sea.

And if I reach the further bank I’ll see

what my future intends for me.

Dick Russell © Richard M. Russell

                    2024