Kafka Poem by Jared Carter

Right at the end he could not speak
but wrote brief notes -
Hello, goodbye, the coffee's weak,
a favorite quote

Imperfectly remembered from
a time before.
The others who were there would come
and go; a door

Led off somewhere. Flowers became
what mattered most -
The way each blue or yellow flame
harbored its ghost.


First published in Clementine Unbound.