For Paul
I can see you through the bonfire, with us.
A fifth of Old Crow circling the dark.
Where did that whole life go? In Texas
the chemo inches toward your heart,
things always dwindling to just the two of us,
a crumpled cigarette, a distant car:
our voices, at dawn, so clearly posthumous.
Woodsmoke rising to the ashy stars.
Copyright Credit: Poem copyright ©2018 by Patrick Phillips, "For Paul," from the American Poetry Review, (Vol. 47, no. 6, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Patrick Phillips and the publisher.