by Bob Zaslow
I arch my back on the yoga mat
stretch an octave on the keyboard
breathe in, breathe out in my chair
free-write my pages each morning.
I wonder if I could practice dying, too.
Like my Japanese maples, who silently
go within themselves and succumb to fall,
losing the lives of their leaves.
Would it be like drifting above the clouds
into a clear sky that has always been there?
Whatever they know, I want to know.
I want my dying to be as ordinary as a fallen leaf.
Bob Zaslow is a former teacher, documentary filmmaker, and advertising copywriter from New York City who moved to the Bellingham, WA area in 2018. He won a Bronze Award from the American Film Institute for a documentary film; a Clio and two Effies in advertising; and a Best Children’s Picture Book award, spring 2022, from The BookFest. He’s written the book to an Off-Broadway musical and one of his plays was published in Applause Books’ “Best Ten-Minute Plays, 2019.” He’s also written “Rap-Notes: Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits” and “Twelfth Night- a Rap-A-Dap-Ta-tion.” Two of his poems have been published in Muleskinner Journal.
Bob’s play “A Little Late” was featured in Fall Issue: Golden Age.