Hospice Home Visit

Hospice Home Visit    7/25/08

Life sits next to death and is cordial;
Death lies next to life and is patient.

When I was young and green,
The death question had to be answered:
Is there life, after?
As I thought about it, it seemed logical.
If  not, eventually, life would just run out. 
It had to be renewable,
In order to exist at all.

Life was green and cordial for another 20 years or so.
Now death is patient, always sitting by,
Or tapping me on the shoulder from the other side, and I turn, and
Oh, there you are again. 
She has what?
When did that happen?
Or, But he was so young!
Or, Cancer? Another one?

The Tree is still green and lush
But I see so much more.
Fallen giants rotting under ferns...
And that I am still alive.
My knees act up, my ear hisses--Family dwindles.
I thread my way into community now,
My vision lifted from Tree to Forest.

My Hospice client is ensconced in her dining room,
With a bed that raises and lowers,
With oxygen and a view out the window
There, the pond, and green trees, and birds on the deck.
Her family dotes on her like a princess
No, like a little queen,
And we laugh as I massage her feet and calves.