That Final Breath

What describes a Poet,
  let me count the ways

To once describe a morning,
  emerging through the haze

What describes a season,
  its leaves from green to brown

What describes a heartbeat,
  when your lover can’t be found

What describes a reason,
  with excuses cast away

What describes a child’s laugh,
  joyous on display

What describes a place called home,
  to a soldier sent to war

And what describes that final breath
  —to an old man wanting more

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)