Soft Ending

around your neck

you carried the black key

up out of the earth

over the dark river

through the gates

of dissolution

my messenger

you have brought me

this twilight gift

fitted to my hand

to unlock the last door

when it is my hour

it is a key / a book

a knife / a bottle rocket

an avalanche / a storm cloud

a canopy / a veil

a shroud of shadow

I knot a cord to it

I sling it around my throat

I sleep with it clenched

in my fingers

we’re all of us dying

for the solace

of a soft ending