All Saints

For Leslie

I remember the last time we spoke
At the Whole Foods in Cool Springs
And I knew death was at work in you,
But I could hardly see it through your radiant light.

You read me a few poems from the book
You would just barely live to see in print
And I promised to preorder it
And you listened to some of my poems, too,
And were so generous and kind in your comments
And now you have permanently breached the veil
And I’m here serving out the rest of my own death sentence.

But I smile to picture how you’ll welcome me –
How you’ll welcome us all –
As we trickle in by ones and twos
Or flood in all at once with a shout and a trumpet
And it will be just like that
February day in Lancaster
When you smiled so wide and warm up front
And eagerly told us of all the joys that waited.