When invitations arrived on consecutive days
for two funerals
both friends
one a lover
he pawed through his closet
like a bear in a blackberry bramble
and found his one black suit
unsuitable for public consumption
delicious to moths with an appetite for tropical weight wool
keen to teach their evolutionary superiors
the infinite depth
inside a newly announced hole

This article appears in February 2021.

MK Punky is the author of the novel Year 14, the memoirs The Smart Money and The Unexpected Guest, and the travelogue Ella in Europe.