Rainbow Sherbet and Dying Poems

I never got why you always Ate the red pink color out The Sherbet ice cream It was like excavation How you removed all the cherry Without even affecting the other colors Leaving the orange and the vanilla Neatly for others Who does that? Being a poet I used to think that one day That could be a metaphor in some poem Which would take the younger half of my life To give it reason Now watching you sleep during your chemo Puts my every coping skill to test Cause I could really use a hug Or even one of your corny colloquialisms Four years of Advanced English and I had to ask a surgeon what he meant By two days to live I asked him that six times Watching the beeping machines Playing pinball with your diaastolic & Systolic I hope I pronounced it right You are the one who always mispronounced Turning my head while the nurse Changes your diaper hurts in the worst way Five years ago I watched you Put a diaper on sideways July will be his sixth birthday And though you are on that stupid respirator Thing I slipped headphones on your head Noticing your eyebrows moving Only Prince could make your eyebrows Dance in such a rhythm So I knew you were listening Sorry I purposely didn’t have any Bowie Remembering your face when you got a low C on an exam intentionally Just so i could get a high D You did more work on my term paper Than I ever could Last night I went down to that little Hospital aquarium thing where they have the tiny waterfalls and plants and danced barefoot in the tiny ponds Like it was Malibu or Santa Monica It took two security guards to talk me out I refused their five finger therapy test You would have laughed I just couldn’t watch the last minutes Of your life Not even the last seconds I would have said something to God That would have gotten me Ex communicated from every Religion Neither God nor Jesus has an answer Why 30 year old mothers need to die with cancer I blame your father for your mother's Wrinkles and Silver hair- No way was she oblivious To his multiple affairs And watching those stupid heart lines reverberate from Elvis To Como to John Denver From James Brown to a silent Sonata Some guidance counselor Chaplin person came in Asked if I needed to talk to someone I said, Only if they are on a wine bottle I know I was abrasively rude And I know your moans and groans We're really just encrypted signals Telling me you remembered my three month marriage The volleyball season lasted longer I Spent an entire week with you And never once did you say You knew he was a loser But he was... A day later we were Laughing… Over Sherbet Ice cream The Doctor said it could be All be over in minutes So I guess I leave my final respects I promise Your children will never know neglect I exited the elevator From the halls hearing crying Your family covering you like an umbrella Now I get the metaphor Of you eating the pink Out the rainbow sherbet Leaving us the Orange & Vanilla Michael Ellis 2021