No-one in sorrow
should dig a friend’s grave.
They know this on Lanai--
it’s a custom
and a kindness
to ready a hole
as the last one’s taken.
But I dug graves in ‘89,
two—no, more
(Louis, Richard, Ben)
dug them and left them waiting--
it wasn’t long.
See, the ground was made ready,
the sod removed
(Reagan, Gingrich, Helms)
too late to avoid the sorrow--
and only kind
when you can’t predict
who’ll follow.
Susan G. Duncan is presently an independent consultant with a performing and visual arts clientele, capping a long career in arts administration. She served as executive director for San Francisco’s long-running musical comedy phenomenon Beach Blanket Babylon, the al fresco California Shakespeare Theater, and the Grammy-winning, all-male vocal ensemble Chanticleer. Her poetry has appeared in Atlanta Review, Blast Furnace, The MacGuffin, The Quotable, Soundings East, Thema, The Yalobusha Review, and others.