after you left

i lay awake for whole hours
dead eyes & a faint kidney ache
when you kissed me & left i was
dreaming i had been sent back to college
surrounded by 17 and 18 year olds
terrifying
i could not fall back asleep so i
ate cereal & read the news
there is a bartender from north carolina
who spent a year in darfur
and now he raises money to install
clean water systems in Sudan, Cambodia,
Uganda, & other places.
I would like to help.
there is a 90-year old man who does
not think he will make it to 91 and
he has no problem with that.
he says there is no soul & that after he
dies he will be dead. enough is enough.
he says he will live on only in his children,
in his books, in his reputation.
i think he is correct.