SOME LAST WORDS

1

It is easier for a needle to pass through a camel

Than for a poor man to enter a woman of means.

Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

2

Eventually, you slip outside, letting the door

Bang shut on your latest thought. What was it anyway?

Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

3

“Negligence” is the perfume I love.

O Fedora. Fedora. If you want any,

Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

4

The bones of the buffalo, the rabbit at sunset,

The wind and its double, the tree, the town . . .

Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

5

If you think good things are on their way

And the world will improve, don’t hold your breath.

Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

6

You over there, why do you ask if this is the valley

Of limitless blue, and if we are its prisoners?

Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

7

Life is a dream that is never recalled when the sleeper awakes.

If this is beyond you, Magnificent One,

Just go to the graveyard and ask around.

Mark Strand