Problems of Membership (for Denny Weeks)

On the lawn...

Problems of Membership

Informed as we were

Of your departure,

We tried to stand our ground.

We held back, awake.

But you left us without words,

In need of a parallel test,

Some soundless interval between friends.

You put us to sleep.

We dreamed you as part of a pattern

Of diminishing form,

The skin stretched so thin

It became invisible

And revealed ourselves.

What more could we do?
We woke, surviving the rest.

We woke, cloaked in our bearable selves.

We stood in a vertical vote—

Sorrow for us,

The short-end of pity for you.

What more could we do?

Simply you were no longer

In the grand union of sufferers.

Conclude, conclude: Wish us well.

In this wide and continuing

Fraternity of horrors,

We certainly could have used you.

Barefoot:  Glenwood Community Center

By Kay Weeks, given to Bill Barnett at

the Dennis C. Weeks, CDR, US NAVY,

commemoration meeting in Riverside, California, 1975.

Denny and I had two children,

Alison Weeks and David Weeks.