Sine Wave

Robert Ronnow
The Imaginary i

Sine Wave

Should I read the classics, epics
or go to every picture show,
become an expert on Ozu.

Learn the orbitals and calculus
or senryu and tin pan alley tunes.
Join the school committee

and tutor kids for free
or collect social security,
write letters to the editor and president.

Do some good, sick or ruined,
or recuperate, late night movies,
memes and mimes,

vote and ovulate.
Serve others and the self
or leave the world behind.

When Judy handed me Peter’s lengthy obituary
naming every degree, sibling and offspring, employer and accomplishment,
it offended her that I speedread it.

She hissed, Yours will say Born, Lived, Dead.
A true haiku.
And still less could be said.

Does Dis exist,
a place to pass
the heavy hanging time?

The body in decline
suffers bruising,
waits for trains,

a.m. means any morning
p.m. means post mortem
a back and forth game, a sine wave, a contour line.