Nate and Maggie

Nate dying in his sleep,
laying in a hospital gown
with his brother fast asleep in a chair next to him.
Me doing all that I can not to cry while Nate is
dreaming.
As he takes off his shirt and jumps into the ocean to swim
I know that he is free, and that this means he is gone forever.

Piano keys playing notes in a
minor scale,
hanging on after they are supposed to.

Feeble and simple final breaths,
and how they're not even whispered
resembles a paper blowing past in the wind,
more than it does a conversation.

These piano keys are
holding on to existence
dancing for the hand of God
which is really just
the hand of a piano player.

All art is derived in this fashion,
and whether it's
a full cup
a half full cup
a half empty cup
or no cup at all
the polar bears still belong to the snow
and the parrots to the jungle.
A map is still a map,
and you have to wonder
why the notes hang on after they are supposed to.

Nate collapsing to the floor.
after he has just made sweet love to Maggie.

Piano keys hanging on.
Domestic tabby cats and Koalas
meeting for the first time in the history of all things,
cocking their heads at each other,
wondering what to do or what this could mean for the future.
wondering if this could mean no future.

Nate knowing this day would come.
Piano keys running away
from a certain fate;
holding on.
The way a penguin holds on to the frost
knowing that the clouds will always separate him
from the universe.
He is misunderstood.

He wants to circle the earth;
a sweet and friendly bird from the bitter cold
longing deeply to orbit
the suburbs,
the cities,
the wild and the wind,
more than anyone at NASA
could say they do.

The penguin wants to be an astronaut
more than I want to lick your soul,
and more than I want Nate to live.

Teenagers in retirement homes,
Senior citizens drinking vodka that tastes like motor oil
on swing sets,
and you have to wonder
just why the notes hang on so long after they are supposed to.

You see it in the parks,
You see it in homeless old men,
but mostly you see it
wherever there are
children.

Thought I saw it in a little girl holding on
to her favorite penguin doll.
Growing up, she forgot about it
with a love more beautiful
than that of piano keys desperately clinging to life,
and with a love still more short
than that of Nate and Maggie.