Classic Poem

Beginning on a line by Silvio Rodriguez

How will it taste — the beer the gravedigger
will drink after bestowing your dirt coat?
What will he say — you keeled the outrigger
too south, & when the breakers rolled, no boats
heard your Mayday? & will he ask his friends
at the bar — if someone calls a Mayday
& there is no one at the other end
of any radio, did Kevin A.
Gonzalez really exist? O second
person, what would you do without you? Where
would Kevin A. Gonzalez hide? Our bond
is over. The red of the rockets' glare
has faded. Your grave has been dug. Gone too
are the days when I tried to speak through you.