For Jean

by Stephen Damon

This poem is for a Zen Hospice resident with whom I spent a few hours, a couple of days before she died. Our day together was spent mainly in silence, but we did exchange a few whispers. I will always remember the last time I saw her smile as she whispered, “thank you” for a flashlight I put on her bedside table. It was one of the most beautiful and haunting smiles I have ever seen. It will stay with me forever.

She is resting

More deeply than before

More deeply than I can know.

 

Her breathing is quiet

Barely a whisper

Or maybe its prayer

 

Lighter than air.

 

Her eyes open a glimmer

A spark within smoke

Then close with a smile.

 

Beneath a universe of stars

She floats effortlessly

Toward a far-off distance

 

Only she can see.

 

Space is dissolving

Without a center

Or circumference.

 

She is no more—

She is everything.

 

Bows,

Stephen