Last Words
Thoreau’s sister Sophia, who was reading to him from A Week on the Concord and Merrimack when he died, claimed his last words were “Now comes good sailing.” William Ellery Channing, a friend of Thoreau’s who was also present, said he heard only two words: “Moose. Indian.” My wife says I yelled “Run!” in my sleep last night. Being chased in a dream often means there is a problem in your waking life you are trying to escape. As a child, I had a recurrent dream of being chased through a creepy old house by a hooded figure with steel hooks for hands. I ran from him in a blind panic, tripping over stairs and banging into walls while he narrowed the distance between us. It is quite a surprise to discover all these years later that I still haven’t gotten safely away.
Howie Good‘s latest poetry collection, True Crime, was published by Sacred Parasite in Berlin this year.
