The Hospice Worker Goes to Laptop Training

Nothing died today
nothing
in front of me
anyway
You get so you
don't think that matters
but a little bit
it does
Three times today I heard
that song
about the day
the music died
and at the bar
the guy
at the open mike
played it again
and sang Peggy Sue
it must be
some anniversary
of some crash
and legends
before they were legends
lost today
we said
the friend and I
to each other

today
not one of my patients died
and there was not one crash
on the untreated roads
in all of
snow-storming Massachusetts
and the seamonkeys
survived the cat
one more day
and the friend
was discharged home
not dead
and with a good story
and the other friend
I was sitting with
found her sense
of the absurd
and did not
die anymore
inside herself

and then the guy
at the open mike
played Tupelo Honey
so slow
so nice
so much so
I had to
put my hand on
the friend's hand
bow my head
to listen
and smile
for a minute

today was
one good day
and that is
what I thought
on the slippery road
driving home
if I crash
and I die
this was a day
I could end on.