August 5, 2009

• Last Poetry Meeting Before School Begins

                                                                            

  I enjoyed meeting with the club one last time before school starts on Monday (for me-- kids a week later.) When I couldn't think what to write, I went to my box of "starts"-- ideas I jot down thinking, there's a poem in there somewhere-- and finished this one.

  Billy Asked For Prayer

   

  I met him, new
  at the nursing home
  on a night too foggy to fly;
  The weather’s bad, it’s true,
  but I’ve got to go--
  an important mission
  you know.

  Still, one clear thought
  as his eyes locked mine,
  Please, pray for me.

  I will.

  Clouds rolled in then
  and covered Bill;
  we never spoke again.

  Across her cup,
  his tearful wife
  said he’d never flown a day;
  he wrote the pamphlets
  that come with pills
  till the Alzheimer’s
  took him away.

  A brief few months
  and he was gone,
  quicker than many there--
  an early flight,
  perhaps booked the night
  that Billy asked
  for prayer.

  7-27-09 Cheri Neuman Herald
  

  • 7:51 am
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