POEM - Short Trip, Long Journey

It was the second call in a month

To wake us early in the morning

To tell us it was too late

Or it would be soon

This was a trip I didn’t want

Driving the twenty or so miles

Knowing the end was near

Listening to the radio

Only to hear the demo version

Of “Bridge Over Troubled Water”

The simple notes lifting the lyrics

Hefting them into the air

To pierce me to my core

It was good the freeway was empty

That I didn’t have to obey the rules

I was distracted

Caught up in the song

In the thoughts from the day before

I had been up to the hospital

Had just seen dad sitting there

The surgery would be in the morning

His second open heart in five years

There was concern

But he was young and strong

At least that’s what we thought

He told me we only had a few minutes

His brother was on his way

But we should talk why we had the time

Uncle Ron never showed up

We talked for over an hour

Then it was time to go

Not that I had to be anywhere

It was just time

Someone else needed their moment

Needed that time with dad

The time they would need

For comfort in the coming days

It was his last gift to me

As I was leaving we prayed together

He offered the words

Simple and pure

A comfort for me, not for himself

Not for his need but mine

I made the trip home

All the while pleading to the heavens

Against something I already understood

That’s not enough! That’s not enough . . .

Someone else knew better

Had let me know the truth

Even if I didn’t want to hear it

It turned out he did leave

It was all just too much

The diabetes was too advanced

His heart was too weak

He went under and never came out

I held my mother later that day

As the woman who never cried

Sob uncontrollably into my shoulder

I thought back to my last trip

To be with dad

As he held my hand at his bedside

He was leading me

Like he had my whole life

Holding the hand of his child

On a treacherous path

Making me steady

So I could carry on