—in memoriam Kevin McGrath

I know you would want me to write this.
I know you would say
we must leave one life
like the Greek ships burning in the harbor.
I know that we are more
than how we’re torn.

But all I have
are these rains, these strangers,
and none of them is you
or your music.

You saved my life.
You saved it twenty winters.

And you, just you, my teacher,
you sat beside that wreck I was,
that child,
and laid a hand of patience
on my shoulder,
and whispered,
You are in it now, the new life.
Step in wholly. Love it. Burn the oars.