Finis

No reader believes a story
is ever finished,
however well-arranged the plot.
So long as some character
survives,
the ending is a thing
that is not
final,
only a resting place
where, for a time
protagonists stay
to be what
we sort of hope they may.
And we hope and don't hope
for more from the old
drudge who first made
our loved ones dance
their lives out
so choreographed--
once new tunes
set our minds to tapping out
their play
in the Elysian fields
we create for fictive heroes
or the drinking tables
in the Valhalla of our minds.