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.