Checkmate
This poem appears in The Love of a Good Man.
For Kieran Kealy
Fifty-one days ago, a man dies
at eighty-four; it's nothing new.
You haven't even heard, 'til now,
by accident; you wonder if
he just lay down, gave up the heavy
weight of age. Oh, what matters now
what came before? The candle's out,
the fire lost. No, you are told,
there's no way to contact him now.
You can't put a book in the post.