A Note to Follow Paul

I envied you the day
you hovered on the
hospital bed
where they had lately
rolled up the rug of hope

I hungered for the peace that
gently flowed then from your
lips -- not merely acceptance
of the inevitable
(I know we all must die)

but something like
the careful attention one
might give to choosing only
those things needful for a
journey

and when I witnessed
your welcoming it
seemed to me we were already
separated by some
gulf of attachments

I left, then, all in heaviness
and excitement and later
when they told me you had
passed I knew
better

than to mourn

Bo Gordy-Stith © 1996