signs

my lips went numb last night.

i thought about disease
and the way i would go from this body.

could it be a sign of demise or
too much pepper in the soup?

i’m tired of trying to decipher
piddling appearances
as if they were oracles from a Greek temple.

could it be a sign of too much something
or not of anything?

i think a lot about my death since my mother died.

she kept to herself the inner gurglings
of the aneurysm that tore her apart.

was it a sign that I was not caring enough
of her fate not to ask?

i can’t say anything that means much.

my mother died. i will die.
and tomorrow the headline will be about politics
or a local house fire or whatever
makes the news.