April National Poetry Month ~ Day Eighteen #napowrimo #napomo

Written when my brother, Martin Daniel Barrett, was in the Oklahoma Heart Hospital in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after receiving open heart surgery. God answered many prayers! And I got to drive him home back to Seminole.

Human toils and high tides
Hardships follow us like the moon
You can see him over there. You say “Hello” to the moon.
Sitting on your shoulder
And his shadow
grows extra long
But by then
Your heart stops!

You just thought
You had more time
You can’t go no further
Hard luck strikes ~
This is it ~
It’s over
There is no more ~ It’s the end!

And then . . .  by some miracle
A reprieve is granted
While you recover
Your body becomes slow and weighted down
In trying out living again
Like some freedoms forgotten
Escaping becomes paramount

No staggering steps here
No unwashed hair
No night pj’s to spare
“Yes, I’m up.”
“I’m dressed.”
“Take me somewhere.”
“Anywhere!”

“How about a big steak?”
That should really help, right?
Protein for healing, right?
And for sure, anything
That will help you feel alive again!

It’s no one’s fault except maybe the moon’s
Take me to a place of my family’s memories
Where conversations are free
Where people get to see each other
Where people can shake your hand

And ask how you are? Where people take time to live a little . . .
extra easy
In all that living
they do so well.

“Yep, you can take me there!”