Going There

by Jack Gilbert

Of course it was a disaster.
The unbearable, dearest secret
has always been a disaster.
The danger when we try to leave.
Going over and over afterward
what we should have done
instead of what we did.
But for those short times
we seemed to be alive. Misled,
misused, lied to and cheated,
certainly. Still, for that
little while, we visited
our possible life. 

After struggling with Alzheimer's for a number of years, Jack Gilbert passed this morning (November 13, 2012) in San Francisico, CA. This is the second of his poems we've featured here ("Tear It Down" was the first).

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