26 October 2010

At the Writer's Festival

the sadest old man painted a picture
of how he felt dying

I saw a river in the Canadian north
with rapids and calm stretches
completely surrounded by wilderness

while he painted he told me
he gave up on art when the cancer took
hold of his wife

he told me now of his aloneness.

yet somehow he was here, with a quivering voice
and a tear in his eye
delivering his message to untutored youth

when finished, I saw the darkness release him
and he smiled
sitting in his canoe without fear of the inevitable



Colin and Co.

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