By: Mark Almand

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There Is a Place

 

I have seen death come

And then go

As my loved one floated

Between two places.

 

First bound by earth,

Then another world,

A foot in each,

Leaning here and then there

And back again.

 

Wishing for this place

And our loving touch

Then that place

And another kind of embrace.

 

She came and went

And came back again

As though unsure

Increasingly willing to go

And stay there

Each time releasing this place

More

And being released.

 

Again and again.

Each visit she spent

More time away.

Day after day.

 

We hushed

As we watched.

It was holy.

A sacred dance.

 

We too released

Not our love

But our hold

On what we loved.

 

With each return

Her face spoke

Of another existence

Of another world

Of a call to it

Of a place for her there

Of a different life

As real as here

And far more beautiful.

 

Until

Finally

It was time.

Like a kite in the wind

The final string frayed

And released.

My dear mother was caught

Up and away

And with shorter breaths

She moved

Onto a higher wind

Faster, farther,

Never to return.

 

When it was done

We stood by her worn container.

We’d glimpsed her flight

And knew

That we too

Will ride this wind

One near day.

 

We should not fear

We do not die

We are caught

We are transformed.

There is wonder there.

There is welcome there.

 

There is a place.

 

Sail on, gentle Winnie.

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Bio: Mark Almand

Mark has been writing professionally since college. His poetry really got going in 2017 as a way to deal with his mother’s descent into dementia. 

Favorite topics are grief, love, and faith. He has written one book, Claude’s Canvas, which combines early poems and narratives into a memoir about his father. He published the book in 2010. It is available on Amazon.com (Kindle), where it has garnered 4.7 stars.

He is currently writing a book of poems called Here and After and a chapbook called The Politics of Our Day.

Mark is ecstatically married to Kathryn for 36 years. They have three adult children and live in the foothills of northeast Georgia.

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