Breath & Shadow

POETRY

A Wafer

By Louie Crew

A Wafer

     for My Student

Whose Mother Cut the Tubes
     Once the Family
Had left the ICU of
Tsuen Wan Adventist Hospital

Mother's sister Rose died in 1959.

For 23 years afterwards,
     every day
Mother spent at least 10 minutes
     in a room alone,
talking to Rose,
     sharing news Rose would want to hear.

Then Mother closed the door and got on.

She never told anyone.

I discovered only when once I heard her,
     in the next room.

She was embarrassed.
She knew I would not understand,
     feared I would think her crazy....
I thought her just silly, and teased.

Mother was buried on the coldest day
     ever recorded in Alabama,
     the 11th of January, 1982.

Yet, at this very moment I tell her
     about you, Shui Yee.

She and I, and Rose too, urge you
     to find your own ways
     to close the door and live.

                R.I.P.

Louie Crew, 71, is the author of 1,850 published poems and essays. He is an emeritus professor at Rutgers University and lives in East Orange, NJ, with his husband of 34 years, Ernest Clay.