The Sun’s Going Down by Clifton Bates

 

It’s getting dark, the sun’s going down.
Winter’s around the corner.
Fields are turning brown.

Won’t be long
I’ll be a skeleton
hobbling around

trying to type with boney fingers
carrying a cranium full of memories
with vacant eye sockets
staring at wishes.

Won’t be long
and I’ll be just one more
of those people dying
who have never died before.

Image by: Kıvanç Niş

Clifton Bates, born in the Pacific NW, has lived the last 34 years in Alaska— involved in Alaska Native education. He wrote a book (with Dr. Michael Oleksa) Conflicting Landscapes, American Schooling/Alaska Natives. His home now is in Chugiak, Alaska where he lives with his Belgian Shepherd, Quinn, while writing various poetry, plays, articles, and short stories—some which have been published over the years.