Bouquet


My father died in May after spending 11 weeks in a hospice, where he got excellent care. I did quite a bit of writing during that time and since, some of it was poetry and the rest was in my blogging. This was one I wrote on March 15th when we still had some wintry weather outdoors.

Thinking of the tributes in words and flowers, here's a revised edition of one and a bouquet after it.




Bouquet

I gather up all the moments
and hold them as a bouquet

You looking over the fields from your bed
still thinking like a farmer, how the crops will grow
how we need to mind the environment

Your smile
when your body no longer cooperated
wanting to keep in touch with life outside those walls

The way you always loved our mother
and us, and how you'd
shown us to love others too

The way you taught and protected us
even that day, from your bed,
telling me to drive safely

I gather all these moments and more
and hold them like a fragrant offering
a bouquet that lasts forever.

March 15, 2016






 My morning glories on the trellises and beyond. What better bouquet. Dad would have liked this one.

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