The Appointment
For Reijo Pehunen
Prepare yourself, Reijo, for months, not days, of my intensive care. About what happened for you to me and for me to you. What I can see, looking into our talking over the years when the tears were just darkness under your eyes and fears were fears in my head.
What death can’t undo is deadly memory: a skirmish with black ice. The catastrophe you said I feared you acted out for me. So unexpected I can only integrate it with that great one I always expected. I was a latecomer to your life; now, maybe, the last to come at your death.