Songs that make one cry for d’verse.
I reach for Sandy’s hand when she was tiny. It is unusual for Sandy not to be smiling.
HOLDING HANDS
(Bridge Over Troubled Waters)
There’s the bridge to nowhere
but I’ll take the bridge to everywhere:
and I did, like it or not.
We all did, the prayer chains set up.
Two days before we knew
what your diagnosis was.
You’d been struck with meningitis.
I could not move.
All I could do was pray.
Kia Kaha,
you fought through;
heroic, a miracle.
I seek simple words,
words that don’t exaggerate.
They, though are the ones
that hurt the most.
There was now another person
on this bridge of all bridges …
it was me. A simple procedure
for a stent but the inserting
wire broke; it was retrieved
not easily.
Mother and daughter now
in the same hospital ward.
We took that main bridge,
your journey much much deeper
than mine.
Now on the other side
we grasp hands. Let us
walk across the footbridge
of return, meet
hold hands together. We
are strong. Kia Kaha.
Benita H. Kape (c) 5.6.2019
The Story — May has been the most dreadful month. But June sees us both home and slowly recovering. I cannot tell you of the full extent of it for Sandy. Complete deafness in one ear, the loss of the tops (to the first knuckle) on most of her fingers. She died twice and they got her back. For me it was a 4 hour operation to retrieve the broken wire. Unbelievable pain, unbelievable kindness along the way.
I have always loved Simon and Garfunkel singing “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”. The resonance of that sound they give fit my feelings for this poem.
benitakape 