Breathe Deep, Listen, and You’ll Know

Poetry

You could have written a book about the sorrows,

each one colliding like dominoes falling down a line,

but never did you chase away the hopes that erupted

from just one kind word or even a passing smile.

There may have been no sense to the optimism,

but you would rather have your happy blindness

than watch the world through a graying lens.

*

When the doctor told you the news on a Sunday,

you still went to the church to sing in choir

even while your heart trembled in this new fear.

No one could have told the difference —

“always has a smile, that one” —

and the kids, who could sense these things,

did not even give you a second glance.

You could fool the world with just a mask

made up of all convention and expectation.

*

Most might not have seen the point

of your secrecy in the diagnosis,

but you hated pity more than anything