Shosanna at the End

Dying, Shosanna thinks,
'Mother rubbed our rough backs'
thinking Death and living
and air are the permanent things

Bleeding on the floor,
Shosanna counts: her dragging breaths,
daydreams under seagull songs,
the yellow shores stored in childhood,

thinking Death and living
and air and memories
are the permanent things
Shosanna thinks, Dying,

'Mother rubbed our rough backs
smooth with lotion, our patent skin
glowing in the failing daylight'
thinking Death and living

and air and memories
Bleeding on the floor,
Shosanna counts: her purging breath,
the panic-gasps of drowning.