April Poetry: Leif

In recognition of Poetry Month, and to celebrate and highlight our treasure trove of Orcas Island poets, Orcas Issues is pleased and honored to again offer daily poetry during April.

For Fred

— by Leif —

I am his anchor
where he once was mine -and
we made our home,
more than Tyvek and Ikea
of respect, transformed me
from girl to woman
of family,
where ours were broken
of humor
where life’s uncertain
of terra firma
where we planted a seed-
roots made soil of sand
that bore in time
the fruit that fed us
and visitors
to our land.

Now we’ve cast off again
captain and first mate
sharing chores equally
..captain he
….captain I
……captain we
first mate always
last and first.
His mind now sails the seas we
charted once before
sometimes he seems to look for me
away from a distant shore
I call to him
his sorceress
my chant
from a book we shared lines
he comes to me
his worries calmed
drops anchor in my eyes.

Positive

— by Leif —

I once visited an Asian man who had been released on Oxygen from a major Seattle hospital after many weeks. Reviewing the chart with him it was plain that his need for Oxygen inexorably increased, his diagnosis unchanging. They had done every blessed thing:……….Except talk to him.
A clear and decisive man, he’d spent his life as chef at The Four Seasons. We with his wife and daughter reviewed what we knew.
Together in that room:………..It all was there.
I asked, “Where do you think this is headed?” He looked at me for a time reached out took up the phone called Las Vegas to his daughter in college and told her “come home.” There were no tears:………..They already knew.
I bet every Doc and RN in that hospital was being “positive” with that family. But the call had not been made. Sometimes the answer is a question, and the right question is not your own:……….You just say it.