When you least expect it...

...grief.
 

I was sitting in a work meeting this afternoon, when suddenly a poem took full shape in my psyche. Just like that. I scribbled it in the margins of my notes for the meeting (looking officious for a few moments, I'm sure). This poem says so much to me—I mean, its substance is what I have been feeling for months, but could not quite get my mind to say. Well, my mind found the words. And my heart felt them as soon as they arranged themselves.
 

Intensive Care

I touch the scarf
and I'm at your bedside
where I knitted it—
fluorescent, persistent
hospital light
machines that beep and flash
hours of uncertainty—
while flowing through my fingers
pure soft real wool
a strand to the outside world
forming warmth
in honor of
the warmth of you,
now lost

NBR 12/30/05