Mocco Wollert: ‘Time to cross out their names’

Time to cross out their names

They won’t mind,
the dead are free of habitat,
only their names linger
in tattered address books.
Lately, I had to cross out
too many names, lives,
on those old pages.
It shows that middle age
is gone, the final stage has begun.

Do I want to start
a new book with blank pages?
Fill it with names
of friends still left?
No, I must say my last
farewells by crossing out
names in those old books,
an act more final than
the closing of a grave.

Mocco Wollert