You will say to me
Why are you grieving?
And I will show you the limp form
In my hands

You will ask
What is it?
And I will say
A dead salamander

You will say
They cannot live for long
And I will say
But it had a name–
I cannot say it

And you will ask
What is the big deal?
And I will tell you
Hope.

But what I will not say is that the prone and lifeless
Body of a man
Too easily resembles
This ephemeral creature

The day I spent for him
The last day I spent for him
Looking for a hat
Big enough to cover his fatal
Head injury
Fatal head injury
Never far from mind
The bodies of our dead.