Rod McKuen




For P.B.

I do not know
if you smiled when you were dying
or cursed your friends
for the little attention we paid you of late
or how you spent your last full hour alive.
I do know that I was saddened when I heard the news.

Mostly
because you gave yourself to me once
without invention or restraint,
for that I still remember you 
and love you.

New York
5/12/60