That Morning I Remember Rightly Poem by RIC BASTASA

what was visible then
was only the outlines
of the leaves of the coconut tree
hanging like a pair of pants
on the clothesline


and this tiny boat sailing
away towards an island
that looked like
nothing but
just this shadow
of a horizontal line

reminding me
of my father's
death...when his heart
failed,
the line was straight, horizontal on the screen
it was flat
like the shadow of the island fronting
from where i stand

it was flat, i always remember that. and then after the beeping sound
silence came.