one for
gus
nearly seventy
years old and
working
part
time just to pay
for his wife's
oxygen
because
because
the
gov't
wouldn't
even
though
the man
had
served
SERVED
his country
just so
she
could BREATHE
and then she
passed away
and they put her
in
the ground
with the others
and the
sadness ripped
the meat
from
his bones
and I had to
help him photo
copy the pages
of her
DO NOT
RESUSCITATE
forms because
he didn't know
how and I
felt
the tears burn
in the corners
of my eyes and
the world
spun
slumbering
but the word
unfair
kept coming to
mind
a
year and half
later the doctors
discovered that he
had cancer
so
they took the
hammer to him
the pills and the
radiation
hoping
to either kill the
cancer or maybe
kill him too and
he lost
his hair
and they ripped
what was left
hanging from
the bones
and
I thought how
much can they
take and
the world
spun
slumbering
but the word
unfair
kept coming
to
mind
nearly seventy
years old and
penniless
still
working
bumming smokes
off me to which I
always say any
time gus and
he
lights them and
people ask about
his lung cancer
and he says
I
don't care I'm
dying anyway
and he laughs
what's left
he
says is like
reading a
magazine that
you don't want to
read in
a
doctor's office
while waiting on
the appointment
you showed up
for
about half
an hour ago
and his smile
twists his face
into
a beauty
the young
will never know
this is not
the way it
ends
for all of us
anger can be
boundless but
this is not the
way
it always was
grit
guts
grace
&
gus
Gustus N.
Roudis passed away on October 30, 2011
I will always remember him
as a dear friend
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