Labrador retriever, image by Rebecca Humann, on Pixabay
TIME’S GIFT
Mid-morning, the rituals of prayer
and chores done, I sit nestled
in silence, grateful for time
to sift floating half-formed ideas
as they filter into cohesive themes.
I sort and juggle dancing words
that skip into place by their own volition
or, through grace,
into poems that pierce the quiet.
*
STEPPING INTO HOLY
An unlikely cast of characters,
we gather in a nursing home room
as we play our human and canine parts,
beeping equipment the sonorous score
of the last act of a dying woman’s life.
Honoring her wish to see dogs
before cancer carries her far from
the antiseptic smell that cannot mask
the odor of decay and fear,
my husband and I wear hospice tags
and have brought our Labradors who cuddle
beside her as she beams with gratitude.
Forming a circle of compassion, we are
held, for one exquisite moment, on eternity’s threshold.
*
ANOTHER KIND OF PRAYER
This morning, with my husband dead four years,
no words of prayerful thanks come,
the daily gratitudes stick in my throat,
lodged between a bout of grief and unexpected anger.
Normally nourishing, silence offers no repast,
and the day ahead echoes with emptiness.
“Take all of this!” I barter defiantly
with a deity I hope still listens
to another kind of prayer.
_______________________
Sally Rosenthal, a former college librarian and occupational therapist, is the author of Peonies In Winter: A Journey Through Loss, Grief, And Healing. Available at Apple
Books Peonies in Winter: A Journey Through Loss, Grief, and Healing (Unabridged) on Apple Books Also available at audible.com and Amazon. A poet and book reviewer,
Sally lives in Philadelphia, PA, where she listens for words in the silence of the everyday.
October 2023 Issue