Thomas Locicero’s most recent poem to appear here was “For Jeff Buckley” (July 2017)

Belated Elegy
By Thomas Locicero

The casket raised, the kneeler for to pray
And pay respects without the draft of breath.
Convicted of my own mortality;
O, this was not how I envisioned death.
Received before, the elderly in tears,
Confounded, as am I, this dreadful morn.
I’m certain they would offer him their years.
It makes me wonder why the boy was born.
What drives a man to propagate his seed,
To open wombs, like fertile flags unfurled?
Is it an evidence? Is it a need,
An arrogant ascendance of the world?
I will, he claims, and seven times in all,
Believing he is worthy of a throne.
Does he not know pride comes before a fall?
The fall of heirs will plummet him like stone.
If half the people thought it wasn’t worth
The agony to honor one so young,
Then there would scarce be anyone on Earth
To tell the difference of a knell and gong.
But would his parents trade a single day
If it meant being spared from all this pain?
No! As I mourn, with confidence, I say,
This little boy would bear it all again.