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Five Years Now

Five years now since Joan’s death, complications from
a broken hip, they say,
but we know better and long ago faced
the ugly truth of dementia and the brain’s
slow devastation,
the last two years my wife lived,
a bittersweet time, too intense and traumatic
to overlook and move beyond,
crowding out much of what went before,
but not everything,
many beautiful moments engrained in poetry
and prose,
one of them occurring today,
her sweet gesture and voice brought to life,
after five years,
a birthday card to me from her from years ago,
falling out of one of my books
to the study floor.

The front of the card featured a “Collage of Ties”
in grays and blues
with seven words, black letters against white
rectangles, stacked vertically.
The sentence read:
“All great men are gifted with intuition”.
Inside the card, in much smaller font,
printed horizontally, the words:
“They know without even reason or analysis
what they need to know”.
Imagine!
Joan urging me, praising me now, for what
I’m just learning about intuition’s place,
a vital balance to my masculine side,
mind and heart dancing into tomorrow,
both leading and following
in perfect synchronicity,
peace and harmony within,
blessed now, by my loved one
from yesterday.

 

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