Well Bottom Blues

Death is never too soon among us,
said the forest.
— Jessica Morey-Collins

I.
If the universe is continuous expansion
how will the entropy of old age play out?
Will it be Slothrop’s temporal bandwidth
approaching zero, or a slow dissolution into
an ever-expanding aurora of star stuff.
A tiny nova perhaps, a final prayer
of light out towards whatever is hovering
in the clouds on the other side of forever.

II.
How old was Dali when he first painted
melted clocks? 27 is old enough to die
for rock & roll, but not enough to perceive
the progression of frames per second
as life tocks up the fragments, so that
each moment is just that much less of a life.
At 2.05e+9 fps everything should be
razor sharp but I keep on forgetting
to make an appointment at the eye doctor


III
I have no definite plans for the afterlife
though Hel (one L) was good enough
for Odin’s son and offers beer & company.
I search the ground & not the clouds
to find a proper wanderer’s staff which
heaven’s meddlers will place there,
squinting my good eye & listening to
the crows call it out for me, and let it
carry me to the next and to the last cup.