(Dedicated to Thomas Steinbeck)

Your body shouts

secrets to universes never seen,

little messages murmured

to cryptic cancerous cells

beside inside your Buddhist temple

and whimpers from diseased organs

which gasp for stale air

during your yard sale where you sat to die—

all reminders of years

behind unfiltered cigarette sticks,

underneath agent orange messages

rippled from unnecessary wars

which took too long to end,

and parents who slipped away

before the proclamation

of their time transcended

beside messages from deprived brain cells

pulling oxygen particles from back seat tanks

inside collapsible mini vans

as the stars hang in despair

and my visitation to watch your inevitable passing

not because we wanted you to leave us

but because you did not believe

how loved you were when you were here.

Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, is a memoirist, poet, workshop leader, thought-leader and award-winning author of 13 books and editor of three anthologies. Her work has been widely published and anthologized. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net. She frequently speaks and writes on writing for healing and transformation. Her PhD in transpersonal psychology explored the healing and transformative powers of memoir writing.

Her latest release, co-edited with Chryss Yost is an anthology entitled, Women in A Golden State: California Poets at 60 and Beyond (Gunpowder Press, 2025).

Raab writes for Psychology Today, The Good Men Project, Sixty and Me, Medium, and is a guest writer for many others.