REMEMBERING OTHERS

a wonder more are not bitten

and of those more

are not sickened

aging necessities slip in

faint with hope

for fever renewed

hands rise

and sink in time

to a heart

beating ribs

mea culpa

mea maxima culpa

cartilaginous serpents

centuries gnarled

skins too tight to shed

fill me slithering

shifting cells

leaving a windblown dandelion

another new years memory

of other new years

remembering others