our glass

sure for years

now, the grim

reaper has been

picking buddies

off as we climb up

Himalayas of aging


but when he nabbed

my longest time

friend/ cousin

with a crab

which was

spelled


Dementia

--it hit me

and family

way harder’n 

ever before ---

life’s incomplete


in irreversible ways

more painful/ less

anticipated, though

as this clan’s next

in line patriarch,

it behooves me...




Gerard Sarnat

Gerard Sarnat MD has won the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize; has been nominated for a handful of recent Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards; has authored HOMELESS CHRONICLES (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014) and Melting The Ice King (2016); and is widely published including recently by New Ulster, Gargoyle, Stanford, Oberlin, Pomona, Penn, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, Virginia Commonwealth, Harvard, and many more. His poetry was chosen for a 50th Harvard reunion Dylan symposium. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with three kids, five grandsons and looking forward to future granddaughters.