I signed for him at a shiny table<\/p>\n
she\u00a0responded with a measured smile<\/p>\n
transaction completed<\/p>\n
I received a\u00a0box<\/p>\n
in a bag<\/p>\n
the bag printed with the words “Nakamura Mortuary”<\/p>\n
and a stylized logo of bending palm tree<\/p>\n
a silhouette respectful yet appropriately tropical<\/p>\n
my friend Norm in the box in the bag<\/p>\n
ashes<\/p>\n
wheelchair no longer required<\/p>\n
I put him in the car<\/p>\n
he rode shotgun as usual<\/p>\n
seatbelt no longer required<\/p>\n
I talked to him<\/p>\n
I made a right\u00a0to avoid traffic\u00a0then a familiar street sign surprised me<\/p>\n
I’d never seen the far end of his street<\/p>\n
we went for a ride sightseeing on Nakoa Drive<\/p>\n
unfamiliar faces watched us<\/p>\n
I paused in front of his house the same but not<\/p>\n
today the\u00a0empty house was\u00a0overexposed like an aging photograph<\/p>\n
Norm would not live there now<\/p>\n
he was gone yet with me on the passenger seat<\/p>\n
“One last look.” I patted the box<\/p>\n
the For Sale sign was still there<\/p>\n
lawn still dead<\/p>\n
the ruthless driveway now benign<\/p>\n
“I love you, Brother” is all I could think to say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I signed for him at a shiny table she\u00a0responded with a measured smile transaction completed I received a\u00a0box in a bag the bag printed with the words “Nakamura Mortuary” and a stylized logo of bending palm tree a silhouette respectful yet appropriately tropical my friend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7395,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7015\/revisions\/7395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}