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When the blond young man
in the green coat put the merciful first
sedative needle into Prince Marcel's
silky neck fur my sweet boy dropped
his snowy chin into my hand as he's
been doing a lot these last wasting
weeks of restless night distresses
Angelica stood over him and stroked him
until our useless tears were making that sleek fur wet
and I knelt beside him and held
his beautiful black panther
head to mine and whispered into his ear
and then the blond man came back and tied the tourniquet
to his leg and slipped the second needle in
8.30 A.M.
12/27/99
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The sun shone for you in the
winter afternoon
Brightness fell from the air
Your pain was finally over
After thirty crazy hours of holding you
A fool who can't let anything go
I finally found the strength
To wrap your big beautiful jungle body
Snowy belly afloat with lavender and cyclamen and roses
Furled in an old blue towel you liked to slumber on
And laid you in the ground
Beneath that old plum tree you used to bask lordly
Under and ponder the frantic squirrels
2.30 P.M.
12/28/99
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Those terrible last nights
Prince's heavy breathing
Fibrosarcoma closing him down
thoracic racket, gasping
I couldn't stand it, can't
now - worked night after
night till dawn on the last
painting I'll ever do—pearl
white dove grey and violet
cloud intruding diagonals
over waves splatting on rocks
the whole thing the enervated
hue of some abandoned world
1.26 A.M.
1/28/00
