Visit my show at the PSCCU Credit Union, Vashon, Washington May, June 2024 

When change comes in a moment

I’m offering a different piece about change this week, very personal, about how suddenly the world can change – and did – in just one moment.

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I’m offering a different piece about change this week, very personal, stirred by how suddenly the world can change – and did – in just one moment.

 

In a Moment

On a country road
We ride peacefully
Past Doug firs, ferns and huckleberry
Red farmhouse in an open field
Chestnut mare, alone, stands grazing.

Chugging up a steep hill slowly
My husband’s bike keels over
Hitting the blacktop with his side
He moans and cannot move
Shoe still trapped on silver pedal.

Speeding car and flashers
Gurneys, X-rays, blinking screens
Black and white silhouette of a fractured hip
Surgery to follow.

My husband in an open gown
Waits for drugs to crush his pain
Again and again laments
That moment
His cleat did not let go.

While I lament the moments that will follow
Our life turned upside down
Was supposed to stay the same
We, ageless, treading the same path together
An illusion I so wanted.

Offered a difficult serving,
Of what I can’t control
I stand a bit awakened

At the edges of the hospital grounds
Noticing the grand fir
Abundant growth bursts from its tips
Fluorescent green and gleaming.

 

7 Responses

  1. So sorry you and Steve had to go through that. I hope he’s doing much better. Life is always a moment to moment thing, but we often don’t see it. Anything can, and does, happen in a flash of seconds and our world is upside down. Your words reflected on it well. But that doesn’t ease the pain. I believe that we never stop growing up. We think we have “arrived” at adulthood and yet something changes and we realize that nothing is static. We are changing and growing all the time up to the moment we die.
    Enjoy the good moments and know that in the bad ones you have friends who care and are ready to help and who hold you both in their thoughts.

  2. So hope a plan is in place for surgery/healing. I know the pain as on Feb. 4 I fell and fractured the top of my femur and 24 hours later had the replacement surgery. Prepare for riser on the toilet, walker, shower seat. Taking care of each other kind of feelings. Hope the medical teams can communicate well in deciding on a plan.
    Sally, your poem lets us know …but soon enough many parts of your life will just as you wish….walking, I wish for you both many steps, then miles….Helen

    1. Helen, I am SO sorry to hear that. Are you done with it now? I hope it didn’t set you too far back with your studies and plans. And yes, we’re preparing for life with accessories!

  3. Beautiful Sally! What a gift you gave to you.. and us..poetry and verse serving up a dose of challenge, beauty,clarity and love. Blessings for you both and thanks for all your insightful posts.

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