Mars

a slow breath for death
in heavily     and out
he's floating     floating
unnnnnhh     ohhh
floating     he's lying     floating

in a panic she splashes
thrashes through the water to him
limp     sogged
dead to the brim

overwhelming quaking
oh my God     he's gone
Maaarrrs     noooo

made his marker
redwood
name     dates carved
it'd been a year
bare sod
gray     empty+

"I wanna be a policeman
 ana     ana     a     a     fireman
 yeah     an I can spray the water
 see     an stop the fire
 pishhhhhhhhh     pishhhhhhhh
 see?"+

In memory of Marshall...
[published in the New York Quarterly in 1979]