Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue

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In the ICU

doing a New York Times crossword,
I ask my daughter

if she knows the Japanese word for yes.
She laughs, says she hasn't a clue.

Her mother, who I thought was asleep,
pipes up, says in the clearest voice

I've heard in days,
"I'm up for learning some Japanese."

Even while busy
with the demanding work

of dying, my wife
always up for learning something new.

Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue has had poems published in The Texas Observer, Concho River Review, Borderlands, California Quarterly, and two anthologies of Texas poetry. His collection of poetry What I Did Not Tell You (Hungry Buzzard Press) was published in the fall of 2020.