
Long Hot Saskatchewan Summer Haiku 4

(In Ireland, lass and lad are used regardless of age)
PATRICIA AT NINETY
Patricia Fiske
has just passed ninety
on the way to a hundred with her foot still on the gas
sometimes
with a little help
from some premium ninety octane in a glass
let’s all raise one to her today
THE DEATH OF A THOUSAND CUPS
Some die by inches, some by ounces
Little by little he sank below the surface
Each meeting less and less of him there
– a discussion without a quorum
It’s been a few months now
and he hasn’t appeared in dreams
or haunting our old haunts
It was so long
since he knew he was alive
he may not yet know that he is dead
LEFT BEHIND ON THE CONCORDE
You get to DC an hour and a half before you leave London
and Rod and I talked most of the way
Maybe it was the ‘69 Dom Perignon
they poured as soon as you took your seat
or the Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Pouilly-Fuisse
they served all through the meal
I do remember there were Arabs in
flowing white, and Burgess Meredith the movie star
and I showed the pretty brunette
my pilots license and got invited to the cockpit
where the pilots greeted me as brothers
even though the fastest thing I’d ever flown
was and Aero Commander 68OE
Maybe it was the Taylor’s Special Reserve
twenty year old port they served with
the Cuban cigars (it was 1978 after all)
Maybe it was going more than twice the speed of sound
but I can’t remember a damn thing that either of us said.