The Long Twilight

The Long Twilight
by Betsy McKenzie

I always
Thought
I’d flash out
Quick.
Snuffed or
Burned out
Like a
Candle
Burning both ends.

Better get used to it:
This dying business
Is slow and gradual.
Small insults
Accumulating
Over decades.
No car wrecks,
Smashing into bridge
Abutments here, ma’am.
We deal in humiliations
And death by inches:
The long twilight.

April 28, 2007