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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Elegy (II) for Gil Kalt


Gil,
I dreamed again of you last night.
                   In the dimming light, your eyes
                seemed green, and true
I am no longer sure they were blue.
Oh! and your feet were bare
but
striking more was your hair, a swept
                            up affair much less you than those eyes:
green not blue.
Last night I smelled again your salt and your sea,
        laid my head close to your heart, a mystery
warmly caged. I clutched you like a land bird after a day
stuck in a tree. You smiled at me.


I am a child still grasping 

       but no longer asking
you to stay.


"Less than a month after joining the police department as Philadelphia's only open gay officer, Thomas G. Kalt Jr. took his own life today by shooting himself once in the head near the historic First Bank of the United States at Third and Chestnut Streets."          --Philadelphia Inquirer

2 comments:

Lorna said...

It sounds like Gil was precious to you. My condolences.

Ray T. said...

Sad and beautiful. Interesting rhymes...