Posted by pullmarine on October 21, 2000, at 23:23:21
In reply to Here and Now, 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:pullmarine
thread:1354
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001011/msgs/1423.html