His Last Words

When you're 'high' 
If you could see what I see 
In your unfocused empty child-like eyes 
You'd see my father's blue stare 
And the horror 
Of the loss of language of an educated man 
He recited poems and Shakespeare, 
Knew the name of every tree in Latin Memory 
The unjust cruel sentencing of bewilderment 
And the dying of the brain. 

When you're 'high' 
What do you see 

His last words to me from surgery 
His last words: 

"burning burning" 
"burning burning" 
"burning burning" 

I'm in the flame 

"burning burning"