Posted by laural on October 20, 2000, at 3:10:13
(not yet finished)
Here and Now
See that woman over there?
She’s hiding
behind her thick-rimmed glasses
and bedroom hair,
her cardigan sweater,
her book and her stress.
Where is she? She is at ballet
lessons in half an hour, drama
rehersals after dinner and studying
for a physics test til noon tomorrow.I have an image of my aunt,
as she was dying of cancer,
sitting by the lake.
It is Fall and sunny.
She is smiling.
I know she is scared,
eyes closed,
lips tight.
She was hiding, too--
from an ending.I am sitting by the lake--
The sun warms my face
and I’m so cold
I feel her hand on my shoulder
she says, my lips were not tight
and the warmth spreads through my body
Somewhere a scared little girl
relaxes and finally sleeps
at 4:37 am.Where is this middle ground
into which we can root ourselves
and lick our wounds clean
of demons and nighttime charades.Where is this absolute truth
this grace
where we can walk
through the seasons
tasting the air
both fresh and foul
or breathe in the color
of a single drop of water
on the dirty pavement or
on your partener’s face--
each hue brighter than the last
As man named the beasts
and God called this Good
how do we call this Good?
(As it was in the beginning . . .)
Where is this ethereal place?A woman now lays dying
in a hospital far away, stark, and lifeless
yet so determined and efficient at keeping
life.
Outside her window, it is bright and beautiful,
inside her organs are dying, one by one.
--and as she lays dying,
does she look back on her life
with regret, anger, bitterness,
and does she wait for it to get better?
or does she wonder
if she has led a Good life
and breathe in the end of the day
despite everything
poster:laural
thread:1354
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001011/msgs/1354.html