FOR JOHN D. MACDONALD

Oh, John D.!
I thought you and Magee
Would live forever!

I found you the year
I attained majority,
And I shall miss you, John.
You sharpened my perceptions of humanity.
And you instructed me
As no other writer ever did
in the ways of storytelling,
philosophy, and romance.

Another writer, male,
Gave you an appreciative obituary,
comparing you to Hemingway.
The fool!
Any woman who read you both would know
Papa wrote from the cock.
You wrote from the heart.