The Hebrews thought seven was holy, I don't know why

Some people you miss more than others. Goodbye Bill Kalenius, you did better than most.
http://www.columbian.com/article/20090929/SPORTS02/709299935/COMMUNITY+SPORTS++VLC+founder+made+a+lasting+impression

Dead Rower Villanelle

I don’t understand why after you, things just didn’t stop.
Nothing has to be like this, stroke
after stroke after deathless stroke. Things
were sharper with you
around. Now? Even air feels like water

without you.
All those early morning lessons, and all I can remember are your instructions on the water;
to not fight it, how to move it, that the wanting will come in waves, about ripples and patterns. Stop
this, please. This feels too much like your elegy and I wanted to remember you for your stroke. Before all this breakdown, I’d ask how you did it. You’d sigh. There are more important things.

Let’s talk about your stroke,
the catch is still late. Damn memory, and the awful things
we hold on to. I keep remembering the water
and how you never really understood that storms could hurt even imperious you.
Please stop.

You taught me well. Some things
break down. You?
Never. Sure as the water
that stopped
you breathless every day, sure as your stroke.

I miss your broke down baseball cap, the lake’s water
at six in the morning, how you never stop-
stopped, I mean. I keep coming back to the wrong things.
Tenses will trip you,
like a stutter in your stroke.

After you leave, little things will break me. Fragments of things; your healthy hand and your licorice, you and your licorice, your smooth stroke over the water in holy cycles, ripples and patterns.