saying good-bye | saying good-bye
Sep.24.2009
I've said many farewells. By the time I was twenty-eight, I'd said good-bye to two husbands. Then I lived alone until I was forty-one, when I met Kenneth. I lived with him for nine years before we married. I didn't want to rush into anything. A part of me didn't believe I would stay. But the...
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Sep.24.2009
I had just finished this poem when I found out about this week's theme. What more can I say?
Ode to Merlin
He's so beautiful
I look at him and reason
breaks with love.
How can I communicate this
to anyone?
He's so special
my big little Shiatsu,
my love-toy, my boy-
his long, sensual neck;
his...
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Sep.24.2009
I often ponder what it would have been like if she were still alive. What would it be like to call out the name, mom, mamá, mother? Instead I have these conversations in my head and sometimes with you, but there is no certain answer back. You were 54 when you departed, and I was 13. They said...
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Sep.24.2009
Final good-bye to the WorldWill take us to God’s residenceWe may be placed anywhereNoble deeds get us Heaven
First good-bye to father’s bodyNext good-bye to mother’s wombAfterward a lot of good-byesThen comes a good-bye permanent
Good-byes told to various friendsWhom we may not meet at allAll are...
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Sep.24.2009
There is an empty chair at the kitchen table, the fourth chair to be exact. A perfectly fine mid century modern example of industrial design with its original dark green leather seat, now slightly cracked with age. When my younger daughter recently mentioned that her chair at the kitchen table...
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Sep.24.2009
I almost avoided this week's Red Room theme because there were a number of possibilities I could write about on the subject of "Saying Goodbye" and couldn't decide which one to give precedence. Yet since the topic appeared in my email queue, I couldn't help but think of the...
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Sep.24.2009
I felt sad and conflicted. My so-called father's wife telephoned to tell me her husband was very sick and had one to five days to live. Since I hadn't seen my father in about eighteen years, and only a handful of times in the twenty years before that, it was almost like hearing that a stranger...
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Sep.24.2009
How pathetic I must look. Like those children I once saw at the airport, clinging to their father’s legs, screaming their heads off, Don’t go, DON’T GO DADDY! Don’t!
At least I’m not screaming. At least I’m not crying. At least I’m not even saying anything. “Say something,” I hear you say. What...
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Sep.24.2009
A dear elder cousin told me I'd not lived long enough to understand death and mourn friends. When two would pass on the same day, then I was old enough. It has happened this year. It began on January 31. Then in seven days, I'd lost eight friends, relatives, acquaintances. The death list has...
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Sep.24.2009
It has almost been a year since Ron died. Of all the losses, I feel his most acutely. The kids have healed slightly, nothing exactly right. They cannot talk about him. They cannot leave his things behind. They talk of going to the cemetery this weekend on the anniversary, and I think they should...
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