Last word

They sawed you open and what fell out with a tangle of cells was words

Not your words words you read out loud from signs, books, papers:

FINAL CLEARANCE LAST CHANCE SILENCE PLEASE

The last one you pulled from a hospital shelf the day after New Year's: PEPTOBISMOL

Not what a son might want to hear though pink and sweet and said with conviction and maybe love

Allan D. Peterkin Psychiatrist Toronto, Ont.