Sunday, September 27, 2009

Lacamas Creek (Poem)

I wrote this just a few minutes ago for my friend R.D.T. whose loss of his brother, like I of my own, touches me deeply.

Lacamas Creek
for R.D.T.

Ritual is annoying,
not for me,
just ask anybody
who really knows me.

But your waters,
your waters
I see how they run deep

Run fast
as the love
I painted for you.

And where you begin
where we end up
must begin our giving over

Of what we have left
Of you who left us behind

On a dirt path
among green tints and red
on snags of rocks
at water’s edge

Life I cannot see
greeting what remains.

Your ashes take their time.

Reluctant,
I turn
our mother’s wheelchair
round

Head home.

Copyright 2009 Maureen E. Doallas
All Rights Reserved.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

a thoughtful espression from the heart.
i am sorry for the loss and separation that death brings to us that are still here.

and thanks for visiting.
i have two daughters,
one turned 22 on aug 22nd.
the other is 12 turning 13 in dec. and barely fits on a lap anymore.

Maureen said...

Thank you, nAncY.

I wrote this poem in first person (because it worked best that way; it wrote itself that way), as though my friend were describing how he said goodbye to his brother. R.D.T.'s brother's ashes were released into Lacamas Creek, a place of inspiration, recently, and I based the poem on R.D.T's painting of the same name, which I saw on his blog this morning, and the few words R.D.T. wrote beneath the painting. His painting as moving as his words.