And At My Departing

It's my head that's come undone as the day of leaving comes,
As the dawn approaches in the eastern sky;
All the balls kept in the air,
Tightropes walked above despair,
Stretched my comprehension, watching people die.

Trip will exercise my eyes as I look at foreign skies,
Stimulate another section of my mind;
Life will to the present come,
As vacation days now run,
And the mental load will be a different kind.

I've not talked a lot these years, though I've shed some salty tears,
As I've written lots of poetry and books;
So to speak and to be with folks,
Cruise the river, share some jokes,
Will give life a lighter touch, and friendly look.

My heart aches as change comes ’round, here at home where mom has found
That her “mini-mental” score has dropped again;
Stimulating her each week
With the friendship that she seeks,
Is now left behind, which causes me great pain.

Woven through this precious cloth is the fact of my own loss,
Loss of life I thought would be before I die;
Comes to all of us at last
As we view half-empty glass,
Mine is full – of air and water – thence I hie.

Forty years we mark this trip, now we of its nectar sip,
Cruising up the Roan and seeing Paris’ sights;
All packed up, arrangements made,
With our travel plans now laid,
Like Love Story, taking time to set things right.

When we went abroad as kids, two months seeing life amidst
Bangladeshi flooding, massive loss of life;
Forty years have passed since then
Pakistan has floods again
And the world moves on with famine, wars, and strife –

But I hasten to recall preacher's message to us all
Sunday evening, Wesley Chapel, spoke on prayer –
“If for Bangladesh one prays
And to God concerns we raise,
God might choose to use us here at home, not there.

“For a war has many fights in the struggle for what's right,
Little acts of kindness costing much right here;
Good effects then ripple forth,
Bangladesh touched in due course,
Costing us the comfort which we hold so dear.”

As my time of parting comes, with my journey partly run,
Take my head, my eyes, my mouth, my heart, my end;
Understanding, seeing, speech,
Thinking, leaving, forward reach –
In these times of new departings, Spirit send.

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