All Work

Photo of an adult daughter holding the hand of her frail, elderly father in a hospital bed, symbolizing caregiving, mortality, and the reversal of parent – child roles in the poem “Changing Roles.”

Changing Roles

Alone with him in his room, his eyes closed, his breathing slow, I became mesmerized by the rise and fall of his chest. A precarious balance was sustained between life and death by this slight involuntary movement. Suddenly his breathing became irregular, his eyes opened wide and he took in quick gulps of air. I held the oxygen mask over his mouth till his body relaxed and his head sank back into the pillow. He smiled and held his eyes on me - glazed expression, weary resig

Poetry - Portraits

Photo of a man sitting on the edge of a bed at dawn, staring toward a window with curtains blowing inward, symbolizing awakening, lingering fear, and the shift from night to morning in the poem “Rising.”

Rising

Unconscious, eyes closed shut, his hand, on auto-pilot, reaches out before the 6 AM alarm cries out. A tender stillness lingers in the air, while the long black night slowly fades into the gray disconsolation of early dawn, and the sun’s fingers stretch long and wide across the uncomfortable divide between midnight black and noontime light. Inside all others lay dumb in deep sleep even their sonorous breath is laid to rest. Slowly sounds disturb his gradual awakening. Water b

Poetry - The Dark of the Moon