His Last Words

When you're 'high'
If you could see what I see
In your unfocused empty child-like eyes
You'd see my father's blue stare
And the horror
Of the loss of language of an educated man
He recited poems and Shakespeare,
Knew the name of every tree in Latin Memory
The unjust cruel sentencing of bewilderment
And the dying of the brain.

When you're 'high'
What do you see

His last words to me from surgery
His last words:

"Burning burning"
"Burning burning"
"Burning burning"

I'm in the flame

"Burning burning"