What Comes Next by Jerry Durick

What Comes Next
“This is the Hour of Lead – 
Remembered, if outlived"

Like a freezing person 
recollects the cold – 
I feel the hour of lead, 
that formal feeling 
come on -- 
the way she said it would – 
the careful phone call 
the messages, arrangements, 
flowers and all – 
my ceremonious nerves
and my questioning heart
as stiff as mechanical feet
go about their business
the wooden way
of outliving this new pain
and, of course, this feeling 
that follows me
like a shadow.